


I'll make a dwarf out of you!

by Marilu



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Army, Awkward situations, Crack, Dwarves, Friendship, M/M, Minor Character Death, Mulan!AU, Orcs, Romance, Slow Build, but was supposed to be, dragon - Freeform, hobbit pretending to be a dwarf, hopefully still not too serious, lots of lying, not so crack in the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-15
Updated: 2014-09-06
Packaged: 2018-01-19 12:55:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 42,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1470613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marilu/pseuds/Marilu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Hobbit Au-fic which follows more or less the storyline of Disney’s Mulan.</p><p>A simple hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, would have lived rest of his life without knowing about the war between dwarves and orcs if not a wounded dwarf soldier had found his way to Shire. When Bilbo hears that his relatives are in middle of that horrendous war he knows that he must go and save them! But it’s dangerous to go alone and to get into the dwarf-army you need to be a dwarf… </p><p>Bilbo makes a very peculiar dwarf, gets slowly better at fighting, makes some friends, fools a wizard and starts awkwardly have some feelings towards his leader, the mighty dwarf-prince Thorin… The journey to Erebor and against orcs is long, romantic, dangerous and clumsy one, but Bilbo is not alone; after all, he has his “guardian” a small lizard- no, I meant a dragon to guide him….</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Very Foolish

It had been completely his fault; he had been too hasty and too foolhardy. Now, lying on the wet ground, he could only blame himself. Oh how sure he had been, that just one stupid human couldn’t take him down..! But he was so young, so very young and stupid; only one well-aimed arrow, and his life was now in the hands of this human man. 

“Kill me…” he commanded, but the man didn’t rise his sword. No, he just kept staring at his victim’s eyes, slowly shaking his head.

“I’m not going to kill you. I wouldn’t be any better than you if I did.” the man answered, stepping closer as he knew that the creature in front of him was unable to do anything more than talk.

“I will spare your life.”

“That would be very foolish…” he snorted, trying to get this man to end his life without giving up from the one thing he still had; his pride. 

But the man didn’t seem to hear those words. From the shadows behind him appeared another man… No, a wizard, and then the creature knew that his fate would be much more worse than death. 

“When you learn to value the life of others, when you place their needs before yourself, then you will be freed from this curse.” the wizard waved his wooden rod, and started to mutter his spell. 

“You just need to do even a one unselfish thing that comes from your heart.”

“That will never happen…” the creature huffed, silently begging for them to kill him. They knew that his race couldn’t end their own lives, that he would be forced to live for eternity with this devilish curse upon him. They also knew that never had anyone seen a creature like him being unselfish, sparing the life of others.

“You will need a miracle for that…” he felt how his energy was draining off, and as he closed his eyes he hoped to never open them again, for the sun never to rise again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started this fic long ago and have written it for a quite many chapters so far. I hope that By sharing those chapters I'll gain the will to contiue this silly thing to the end! And so, we'll start with this mysterious and short prologue! Yes it's very short, I'll try to update this soon again...


	2. Undying Energy

The sun was shining and there were only few pure white clouds sailing in the sky when the hobbits of Shire finished their second breakfast. Somebody was playing a sweet melody with his flute as the birds were accompanying him with their singing. Who would have thought that this beautiful, ordinary day would change the life of one certain hobbit called Bilbo Baggins, the owner of the Bag End.  
Had you told that to him, Bilbo would have laughed..! He had planned to do nothing unexpected this day, actually had planned to do nothing more than smoke his old pipe, maybe do some gardening since the weather was so nice.

“Mister Baggins?” a high-pitched voice interrupted Bilbo’s thoughts as he was checking his mail.

“Yes, Sam?” Bilbo smiled down to his neighbor’s little son, who moved restlessly from foot to foot as he asked very politely when Bilbo’s nephew Frodo would come back and play.

“Frodo’s parents work far away, and I actually haven’t heard a word from them quite some time…” Bilbo answered, his tone carrying a slight taste of worry. But as he saw how that worry reflected from little Sam’s eyes, Bilbo quickly switched his frown to smile.

“Don’t you worry, I’m sure that Frodo will come back after the harvest, and you two will have plenty of time to play.”

This statement made the smile appear on Sam’s face, and before Bilbo had time to blink his eyes, the six years old boy had already run to play with his two other friends, Merry and Pippin.

“Oh, kids and their undying energy!” Bilbo chuckled and continued reading his mail. And even thought the day was beautiful and all, he couldn’t help but feel a little bit blue when there still wasn’t even a short letter from his second cousin, Drogo Baggins, Frodo’s father.

“I hope that they’re alright…” Bilbo sighed, knowing that worrying wouldn’t help him. He should know that Drogo and his wife Primula were strong hobbits; after all, they had moved far, far away from Shire always towards to Erebor, the kingdom of dwarves. Oh they didn’t move there for fun, of course..! It was because Drogo needed to earn some money, the harvest had been really bad for his family for couple of years. And he had heard that near Erebor there were small human villages that needed help with agriculture, and hobbits really knew everything about cultivation. Of course no one in Shire really liked the idea of them to move away, and so far by all means, but Drogo was very proud and didn’t want to take a loan. And Primula wanted to follow her husband, not wanting to stay behind with Frodo. Of course this was only temporary solution, after few years they would come back, but it didn’t help the fact that almost half of Shire was now talking about “crazy Baggins”. And on that beautiful morning, Bilbo would have never guessed that he was soon to steal that nickname for himself from his cousin.

Because no matter how ordinary the day looked, it was going to be anything but. And before Bilbo had time to count all the letters he had received, a loud cry of help echoed through the village.

“Help! He needs help!”

Immediately a half of the Shire folks had run to see what was going on, Bilbo being one of them. Their old shopkeeper’s wagon’s drove in the village square, no one ever seeing anyone riding so fast!  
“He needs help!” the shopkeeper repeated again and again as he hopped down from the driver’s seat, motioning other’s to come to look in the wagon, and the sight it revealed made them all shiver, and some of the women started to scream.

A bloody, half-death dwarf lied on the hays.

After that, the day truly was anything but an ordinary; the hobbits run from house to house, trying to find something that could help the dying dwarf, or trying to find someone who knew how to treat such bad and deep wounds. Eventually they decided to carry him in the Bag End, it being one of the largest house in the village and near enough. As they lifted the dwarf from the wagon, they surely weren’t aware of the pair of glistening eyes that were staring at them through the hays…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for all the comments, kudos, bookmarks and views! They really inspired me to continue this rght away! Though you may need to wait a little bit more than just a one day to the next update, but I try to post the third chapter in a week!
> 
> Aaand, yeah. I kinda don't know much about how the folks in Middle Earth ages, so I just made them all age like humans, no mater of their race. I'm very sorry if that bothers someone, but I promise that their ages won't matter much in this story!


	3. Nothing you can do

Bilbo had so many books, not every one of them even fitting on the shelves that were built for them. Actually the Bag End had more books than any other household in whole Shire..! But even though Bilbo had all those books, only one of them was about dwarves. It took a while to find it, but Bilbo really didn’t know what else he should have been reading while staying up the night, waiting for his wounded guest to wake up so he could feed him. 

After all the hassle, the hobbits had managed to stop the bleeding, and treated the dwarf so that he would live through the night, if nothing unexpected were to happen. Bilbo agreed to look after him, but made also an agreement with little Sam’s parents that they would take care of the dwarf every other night, since there wasn’t a doctor in Shire; hobbits did get sick and wounded, but never this badly, they had their homemade medicines and tricks to cure simple sicknesses.

Around the midnight, Bilbo heard how the dwarf began to cough, and in a few seconds he was beside his patient.

“Don’t move, your wounds might reopen.” Bilbo warned as the dwarf slowly opened his eyes.

“How are you feeling?”

“Where am I?” the dwarf asked with a weak voice, it taking so much for him to keep his eyes open.

“You’re in Shire, with friends. Are you hungry? I could feed you some soup if you like.” Bilbo smiled, wanting to ask all kinds of things from this dwarf, but knew to wait till he had gained some strength.

“Who are you..? You’re not… Dwarf… A Human? An Elf?”

“I’m a hobbit, my name is Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins of Bag End.”

After a weak nod, the dwarf fell asleep again, and after a few hours he woke up again, this time staying awake long enough to eat some of that soup, feeling instantly better after having something warm in his stomach.

“Thank you, I wouldn’t have survived without your help.”

“Oh don’t thank me! The shopkeeper found you when he was getting some supplies from the smaller village nearby. He’s the one who brought you here.” Bilbo explained, but this fact didn’t lessen the dwarf’s respect towards the hobbit in front of him.

“My name is Dain, at your service.” The dwarf bowed his head down a little, remembering his manners through his pain.

Bilbo had already guessed that Dain was a solider when the dwarf started to tell how he got those nasty wounds.

“It was a surprise attack, and only I survived. I walked for days to find some help, getting more wounded as the wild beasts attacked on me… Without my training and your help, I would have surely died.”

“You’re safe now, and we won’t let you go before you’re fully healed.” Bilbo interrupted Dain before the dwarf started to dwell in depressive thoughts, but Dain didn’t take up the friendly offer.

“No, I must go back as soon as I can… The war needs every one of us.”

“The war?” Bilbo wondered aloud, not remembering of hearing any wars among the dwarves. Surely Drogo would have written him about that kind of tragedy if… 

Suddenly, Bilbo’s imagination started to create some very nasty thoughts about why he hadn’t heard a word from his cousin’s family for some time.

“Me and my men were on our way to get more help for the battlefield, but they found us, and there were too little of us and too many of them-“ Dain kept talking, ugly memories dancing through his mind until Bilbo stopped him again.

“Wait, just wait! Who you are fighting against?”

Dain kept staring at the ceiling for a while, sighing as the words came out of his mouth.

“Orcs… And they are about to win, wanting to kill the king and take over the Erebor…”

After hearing the kingdom's name, Bilbo stiffened, remembering his cousin.

“Is… Is Erebor already..?”

“No, we will fight till the last man! If our King Thror wouldn’t already be so old, he would himself come and fight beside us! But his son and grandsons are training soldiers in the training camps, every dwarf is needed in this fight!”

Dain kept telling him more details about this war, and slowly Bilbo grew more pale.

“What about the human villages around Erebor? Are they fighting too?!”

“No, this is a war between dwarves and orcs! But sadly, if the orcs ever get the chance to come near the Erebor, I’m afraid that they don’t care much are they killing humans or dwarves.”

Of course, those words didn’t make Bilbo feel any better. And when seeing how white his host was, Dain immediately added that the Shire was not even near the path that orcs were using as they tried to make their way towards the mighty kingdom.

“Had I never been brought here, you wouldn’t ever even know that there is a war outside, mister Baggins!” he tried to reassure the hobbit, but without success; Bilbo was already almost panicking. 

“You don’t understand! My cousin is living near Erebor with his wife and son! And I couldn’t stand if something were to happen to that little boy!”

“Mister Baggins, I understand you’re worried, but there is nothing you can do-“

Suddenly Dain started to cough violently again, and reluctantly Bilbo took the role of the good host again, giving his wounded quest time to rest. And for the rest of the long night Bilbo walked back and forth, his stomach feeling upset with all this worry.

“Oh no… Frodo…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the chapters are short, they will get longer once the story starts to roll!


	4. A Miracle for that

They were almost sure that Primula wouldn’t survive; it was such a difficult labor. Drogo and Bilbo were sitting in the kitchen when Bilbo promised that if the baby were to survive, Bilbo would help Drogo to raise him. But against all the odds, Primula made it, survived after giving a birth to healthy little baby boy. But for several months Primula was feeling so weak, and Bilbo was very big help as he took care of Frodo so Drogo could go to work, bring food to his little family.

Eventually, Primula got better, and they were sure that the hardest part was already behind them. But not so much time passed when those bad years with harvest started. Of course Bilbo was ready to help again, but then Drogo heard from a wanderer that near the kingdom called Erebor there are many little human villages, needing some help to know how to make their stony land to blossom.

They had been gone for a one year by now, and when Bilbo usually got a one letter from his cousin in a month, three had now passed by without a single note. And if there really was a war outside, Bilbo was afraid that he would never get to see his cousin and his nephew’s face again…

 

So, when Bilbo was now taking care of Dain, one of the king's trusted soliders, he kept asking things about the war, asking same things over and over again.

“Tell me, is there anything, anything I could do to help them?” Bilbo asked on the third day, gaining a deep sigh from Dain.

“Mister Baggins, you have a heart made of gold, but that won’t save anyone in this war, not even your cousin’s family. Just be rational, what could you do? You’re just a little hobbit, very gentle one, not someone who should know anything about war! None of you folks are made for fighting! Just listen to me, this is NOT your war! My king would never let one of your people to interfere with our problems, we couldn’t drag a gentle folks like you into this war! ”

“But… It’s my family, they’re out there, in middle of that cruel war with a child! There must be something I could do!” Bilbo insisted, eyes almost teary.

“You have done enough when helping me to get back on my feet so I could go back and fight with my people. And I promise you Mister Baggins, that when I do go back, and if the orcs have not already made their way near the gates of Erebor, I’ll make sure that they never will!” Dain promised, but that promise didn’t make Bilbo feel any better. Dain wouldn’t be in a fighting shape for a good time, his wounds were too deep. Bilbo had read that dwarves healed pretty quickly, their body was made for a hard work, almost perfect for fighting. A hobbit would have surely died if sharing Dain’s fate, but as a dwarf he had this hope of surviving.

Their argument had no time to go further when Bilbo’s neighbors came to change Dain’s bandages, giving Bilbo some time to rest.

“Remember, this fight is between dwarves and orcs, not hobbits.” Dain said before Bilbo walked out from the room, knowing that instead of those words Dain had wanted to say something like “just know your place; you’re a hobbit, not a solider.”

Normally, Bilbo would have felt happy when told that he should just stay at home, away from all the ugly fights they had outside of Shire. But now he just felt helpless, knowing that even if he had the courage to go outside no one would allow him to help… Because he was a hobbit, not a solider like dwarves were…

“Hobbits are not weak.” Bilbo said to himself, comforting himself so he wouldn’t drown in this helpless feeling.

“My great-great-great-great uncle Bullroarer Took was so large he could ride a real horse! I may be a Baggins, but I’m also a Took, and Took’s blood is as strong as dwarf king’s!” Bilbo vowed, not usually boasting about his Took heritage, comforting himself how strong his mother’s bloodline was.  After his rage cooled down a little, his mind started to create a plan, a plan that even scared himself.

“So large he could ride a real horse…” Bilbo repeated, remembering that uncle Bullroarer’s clothes were treasured by his mother, kept safe and clean somewhere in the barn behind the Bag End.

“No… No! That would be ridiculous! Don’t even think about it!” Bilbo told himself, but it was already too late; he was already thinking about it, thinking about it pretty seriously too. And before he had time to change his mind, the Tookish side of him made him to grab the book about dwarves from his coffee table, and beneath the pale moon he made his way to the barn, spending there over an hour when searching for is late-mother’s belongings.

“Here it is!” Bilbo finally found what he was looking for, placing the big chest on top of the hays. And as he opened it, he surely wasn’t aware of the two eyes which watched him curiously from the corner, slowly growing bored as Bilbo did nothing more than started to dress himself in big, baggy clothes.

But the curiosity woke up again when Bilbo finished the dressing, watching his reflection from the water through.

“This is hopeless! I will never look like a dwarf.” he sighed, clumsily tripping forward as he was unused to the boots he had slipped in his feet; hobbits didn’t use any kind of shoes, their big and hairy feet didn’t need such a things. It will remain mystery forever why Bullroarer Took ever had a pair made for himself.

The owner of those curious eyes now laughed voicelessly; a hobbit wanting to be a dwarf! He chuckled even more when Bilbo studied that book of his, trying to glue a little fake beard on his chin. In the end, Bilbo looked like a hobbit with a bad fake beard and overly large clothes instead of a dwarf, just like he really was.

“This idea was stupid from the beginning… They would never believe me, they would never take me in the army…” Bilbo dropped on his knees, remembering how Dain had told him that the only way to survive the journey to Erebor was to be a part of the dwarf army; if you were to go alone, a wild animal or orcs were surely to kill you. And Bilbo had had this crazy plan, that if he could to infiltrate in the army, he would safely walk towards Erebor with the dwarves, and help Drogo and his family escape from the war before the orcs got them first.

As his disguise looked awful, his Tookish side started to hide again, making Bilbo feel helpless.

And again, the small creature in the corner laughed, almost so that a small snickering could be heard. So, this hobbit wanted to fight with dwarves? Oh how foolish he was! Even if everyone believed that he was a dwarf, he would never make through the training, and if he somehow did, he would die instantly as the first orc pack attacked.

 

“I’m totally useless…” Bilbo sighed.

 

 _“Oh yes you are.”_ the creature thought, smirking.

 

“I will never look like a dwarf… Never be a solider… Brave and courageous, one saving the life of others…”

 

_“You surely won’t!”_

 

“I would need a…”

 

_“You would need a…”_

“A miracle for that..!”

 

By those words, those words said out loud, something inside of that creature twisted, an old memory woke up. His head almost hurt when the past which he had tried so hard to forget flooded back in his mind, and suddenly he found a hope when looking at that small hobbit; maybe this was his chance to change his fate, end this misery that had lasted over hundreds of years… So, if this hobbit longed so hard to end his life by fighting next to dwarves, why shouldn’t he help him with this suicidal?

Slowly, the creature crawled out from the corner, stretching himself to his full length behind the hobbit, and asked with a low, grumbling voice:

“Did I hear someone ask for a miracle?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally some real Mulan references here..! Now it starts finally feel like the story is going on!  
> Thanks everyone for the support shown by commenting, giving kudos, bookmarking and reading! Everything is very much appreciated!


	5. Your guardian

“Did I hear someone ask for a miracle?”

Bilbo stiffened, the voice behind him sounding so threating. Quickly he grabbed a shovel, turned around to face whatever was waiting for him.

But there was no one. Not a single person standing by the door.

But he had heard something, someone. How was it possible for them to disappear so quickly and without a noice-

“I repeat, do you want that miracle or not?”

There it was again; the voice. Bilbo was sure that this wasn’t just his own imagination; someone was talking to him!

“Wh-where are y-you?” Bilbo slowly backed against the wall, pointing the shovel to his right and left.

“What..? Oh, drop your gaze, I’m over here!”

The low grumbling was gone this time as the creature spoke with annoyance. After blinking his eyes for a few times Bilbo lowered his gaze on the floor, just to see a small lizard standing there, face twisted from anger.

“A… Lizard?” Bilbo asked, not ever remembering seeing a lizard looking like that. It wasn’t big, but not as small as the other lizard he usually saw on the rocks. And lizards were usually brown, this one was bright red, and it looked like it had small wings attached on his back. If it was a lizard, it was very peculiar one indeed.

“I… I don’t understand…” Bilbo kneeled, leaning forward to take a better look of the small animal.

“You know, staring is a bad habit.” the lizard hissed, making Bilbo to gasp.

“IT CAN TALK?!” Bilbo immediately jumped backwards, face going white as he realized that this small creature had been talking to him all along.

“Well, I always wondered would they react like that.” the creature huffed.

“And by the way, I’m not a lizard!”

“T-then w-what are y-you?” Bilbo whispered, taking the shovel back to his hands.

“I’m a… A dragon!” the creature tried to look as big as possible, even speared his wings open to look as mighty as he ever could. Which is really hard actually, when you only reach someone up to his knees…

A dragon, Bilbo wondered. He had read about them when he was younger: they were selfish, evil creatures who desired power and gold. They had ability of flying and spit fire, burn whole villages, even kingdoms down. Bilbo was sure that surely dragons didn’t exist, but if they did, he had always imagined them to be a little bit bigger than the one he was seeing now.

“You’re quite small.” Bilbo blurted out, shutting his mouth quickly as he saw how annoyed the little dragon looked, almost hurt by his words.

“I’m… A pocket size, it’s much more easier to move around and hide when you’re smaller, you should know that!”

Bilbo shrugged; he had heard that hobbits were rather small, compared to humans and elves, even smaller than some dwarves, like Bilbo had noticed when taking care of Dain, who was a quite big dwarf. But since he had never left Shire, he couldn’t really understand how small he actually was.

“I-if you’re a dragon, what a-are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be somewhere- I don’t know, somewhere where there are massive hills of gold and treasures. Or where you can blow things up…” Bilbo asked with a shaky voice. He would have been much more scared if the dragon in front him wasn’t so small and light looking.

“No, no! You really don’t know anything about dragons! We are not cruel, greedy creatures, we… We are guardians… That’s right, I’m a guardian, your guardian!” the dragon lied, being pretty convincing actually.

Oh dragons were greedy and selfish, that fact would never change. But if he had told the truth to this little hobbit, the truth that he had been living in a middle of the forest, saw the dying, bleeding dwarf and just decided to wait till Dain was finally dead so he could eat him for a lunch; it had been so long since he last had tasted a dwarf! But then an old hobbit man found him, and the dragon had hid in the wagon, hoping that his meal would die before they reached to the village. When this did not happen, he decided to hid in the barn, eat some food meant for animals and rest before going back to the wild. But his plans were to change dramatically now…

“My guardian? I didn’t know that I had one. I-I didn’t know that dragons could be anything like guardians!”

“Well of course we can be! You surely don’t know much about anything. It’s your luck that I’m chosen to be your guardian, there is so much I can teach you.” the dragon grinned, knowing that Bilbo would swallow his lies. He took a few steps closer to Bilbo, pleased when the hobbit flinched a bit, showed some fear.

“Why did you come here now?” Bilbo stuttered, trying to gather up his courage.

“Well… I came because…. Because you need me now, it’s your destiny to fight beside dwarves, and I’m going to help you with that!” another lie slipped out from the red dragon’s mouth.

“My destiny.. T-to f-fight? No, no! I wanted to go to the army so I could go to Erebor and save my cousin and his family! I’m not a solider!” Bilbo yelled, terrified when told that his fate was most likely to die in the battlefield!

“Well then I’ll help you to get in to Erebor.” the dragon huffed and continued.

“I’m old and wise, I know everything about dwarves. I know how they look like, how they act, what they taste like- I mean, how they fight and so on. I will help you to get in the army, so you could achieve your goal and go to Erebor to save your dear cousin’s family, how that sounds like?”

A little voice in Bilbo’s head was telling him that this was a bad idea, but his Tookish side screamed that he wouldn’t get a better offer, and he would never made his way in the army on his own. Besides, the dragon was his guardian, he wouldn’t be alone!

“But, what about my destiny… To fight beside dwarves?” Bilbo swallowed, carefully leaning closer to the dragon and examining its’ form with his eyes.

“Weeell, you know, destiny is not so important; many do without one just fine.”

No need to tell you that this was just another lie; after all, the dragon hadn’t spoken even a one word of truth since he opened his mouth (expect about the taste of the dwarves, they are kind of delicious if you skin them first, of course only if they don’t have parasites). What the dragon wanted, was just to take this hobbit to Erebor as fast as possible, and after making Bilbo happy, the dragon was sure that he would be freed from the terrible curse it had suffered for years and years…

“So, I bet you don’t want to waste any time. We will leave right after I have made you look like a proper dwarf!”

“Y-you mean t-tonight?!”

“Do you think we have all the time in the world? It’s a war out there, not some sort of festival, mister hobbit!” The dragon scolded him, but Bilbo decided that if he was to work with this small creature, he would at least have the dragon to call him by his name.

“Not hobbit, call me Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins.” Bilbo stood up, and bowed respectably down to the dragon.

“How shall I call you, mister dragon?”

“Smaug. Just Smaug.” the dragon sneered, feeling a little weird by saying his own name out loud after the decades.

“Come on, little hobbit; we got lot of work to do before the sun burns the stars!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, I really loved to write about Smaug in this story! :---D And in the next chapter, you will finally meet Thorin (and some other new characters too!)! Gonna update maybe tomorrow or in the next week!


	6. At Your Service

When the morning came, no one in Shire was able to find Bilbo; he had disappeared, taking with him only some simple food supplies, some clothes and a one pony. Everyone were thinking that he was either kidnapped or something else like that, but Dain feared that he knew the real reason for Bilbo’s disappearance:

He had left to join in the army.

He deduced this easily when thinking back the conversations he had had with Bilbo, and he also noticed that the signet ring he wore had been used without his permission; after all, no army would take Bilbo if he didn’t had the needed papers and contract. The hobbit had been lot of smarter than Dain had first thought. He was sure that Bilbo had also taken some other clothes, some weapons with him too, and most likely disguised himself as a dwarf. Oh why Dain said all those things to him! He had not meant this to happen, the hobbit was surely to die sooner or later on his journey! But now there was nothing he could do to help the poor halfling. He was still too weak to go after him, and if he wrote a letter to the other army captains, some of them would even kill Bilbo, accusing him of lying and thinking him as a traitor! Well, such a thing was hard to believe, but Dain was sure that Bilbo wouldn’t survive without any consequences if anyone finds out that he is not a real dwarf; after all, dwarves were very proud, and they would most likely think that Bilbo was mocking them when trying to act like them. Or they would think him as the orcs’ spy, the point was, they would never believe that Bilbo just wanted to save his cousin.

“Mahal be with you, mister Baggins.” Dain prayed, for there was nothing else he could do now.

Very ironically he came to understand Bilbo’s feelings, when he had told him just to sit down and wait till the war was over…

 

 

 

\---------------

  

 

 

“You’re not even trying!”

“But these boots are just STUPID!”

“Your big feet will give you away right away! And don’t walk like a girl, you’re a man, a dwarf man! A solider on top of that, not a dancer!”

“I do not walk like a girl! And I have never worn boots in my whole life!”

Needless to say that the cooperation between Smaug and Bilbo wasn’t painless, but they had made some progress; now Bilbo at least looked like a dwarf.

Okay, he was looking like a very petite dwarf, dressed up in way too big clothes. And they didn’t dared to attach too much beard on his chin, since Bilbo was sure that a long beard would have get tangled in something sooner or later when he wasn’t use to have one. So, he just had a short, brown beard under his chin matching the color of his hair, Smaug convincing him that it was enough to fool everyone.

“You’re quite short, shorter than the shortest dwarves, so it’s okay for you to have a short beard.” Smaug had said, making things up again.

“Do you think they will not suspect me?” Bilbo asked, combing his hair to cover his pointy ears.

“Sure they do, until you learn to walk properly.“ Smaug grinned, gaining a halfhearted kick from the hobbit- I mean from the dwarf in front of him.

“Now, let’s not waste any more time; we have only few hours more to practice sword art and walking, then I’ll lead you to the nearest training camp.”

Bilbo nodded, reminding himself why he was doing this crazy thing; for his cousin, his wife and their son. That did not lessen his nervousness, though.

“How do you know about the training camp?” Bilbo asked only because he needed something else to think about beside the upcoming horrors he was sure to face as he tried to swung his heavy sword, it also being found from the chest of his great-great-great-great uncle’s.

“I know lots of things. Besides, I can smell the dwarves from miles away!” Smaug lied, his sense of smell had long ago weakened from the lack of hunting. The real reason he knew about the training camp was because he had wandered nearby it some days before he had found Dain’s bloody body.

“I can even tell that there’s a royalty in the lead!”

 

 

 

\---------------------- 

 

 

“You’re wasting your time here.”

“Your father seems to think otherwise.”

“I can’t see why he thinks that I need a babysitter.”

“I’m not a babysitter, he just wants me to make sure that everything is alright; after all, you’re his youngest son. And don’t worry, I’ll leave in a month.”

The wizard smiled to himself as Thorin Durin, the youngest grandson of the king huffed and mumbled something like “whatever” between his teeth. Clearly he had taken it as an insult when his father had send Gandalf Gray, his old friend to watch over his youngest son as Thorin was to train for a first time so many amateur fighters. Well, he had his trusted bodyguard to help him with that, as Dwalin was used to teach young lads to hold sword and axe. But Thorin was on responsible for these men, and he surely didn’t need an old wizard to help him with only a handful of dwarves, thank you very much.

“Come on, Thorin! I’m sure that I will bring only good news to your father, and next time he won’t see it necessary to send me here to watch over you.”

But even the old wise wizard couldn’t have guessed how unexpected the upcoming month was going to be…

 

 

 ------------------

 

 

“You stay here and wait, Myrtle.” Bilbo stroked his pony’s soft hair as he left her outside the training camp under a small tree.

“This camp is pretty small, only about 100-150 soldiers, but I’m sure that you will blend in.” Smaug suggested, having actually seen bigger training camps further in the south. He hid himself under Bilbo’s armor, head close to his ear so he could help the hobbit if he was to face some problems.

“You just walk in there, act as dwarfish as you can, and everything will be alright!” Smaug encouraged him, and after inhaling deeply Bilbo straightened his back, lifted his chin up and marched into the camp.

 

Still little unused to his boots, Bilbo’s unique walking style gained a few strange looks from the dwarves around them, but no one really seemed to care much. So far so good, but then Bilbo tripped, his fall stopping when his head bumped against a large back.

A ginger haired dwarf turned around, raising an eyebrow to Bilbo, like the hit on his back had felt like someone tapping a finger on your shoulder.

 “Umm… I’m very sorry-“ Bilbo started, until Smaug whispered in his ear that he shouldn’t apologize; dwarves really liked to gain a hit or two once in a while.

“You’re pretty short, lad.” the dwarf stated, until he turned around and began to clean his big axe.

“See, he likes you already. Nice work Bilbo, you made your first friend!” Smaug cheered quietly, his tongue almost tickling Bilbo’s sensitive ear.

“I… I did?” Bilbo whispered back, doubting a bit Smaug’ words.

“Sure you did. Now, push him again, harder this time, he will like you even more if you do!” Smaug urged, thinking that he could have some fun as well.

“I don’t think that it would be wise, he looks pretty scary…” Bilbo gulped, thinking that he didn’t need any friends from here.

But Smaug was determined to have his fun; he scratched Bilbo’s back sharply with his claws, making the hobbit yelp and stumble forward again, this time almost throwing the dwarf on his nose.

“Ouch! You damn little-” the dwarf raised his fist to grab Bilbo from his tunic, but a hand appearing on his shoulder made the dwarf still his movements.

“Now now Gloin! Your brother would be very gross with you if you bring him any more patients than needed!” the dwarf behind him laughed, pulling the grumbling ginger haired dwarf solider away from Bilbo.

“Sorry, the lad has a short temper.” the dwarf apologized and bowed his head, taking off his funny hat as he did so.

“No, that’s all fine.” Bilbo shook his head, and tried to flee from the situation, until Smaug wanted to have another laugh and pinched Bilbo’s neck. This caused him to stumble forward again, hitting again the dwarf called Gloin who bumped his face against a very large dwarf sitting in front of him.

“Now you damned-”  Gloin turned around with his fist in the air, attempting to punch Bilbo in the face, but quickly the hobbit dodged the powerful hand, and the hit ended up on that funny hatted guy’s chin.

“Hey! Don’t touch my brother!” the large dwarf stood up, throwing Gloin up in the air. And of course the dwarf couldn’t just land on the ground, no; his fly ended when he landed on the very small dwarf, having actually no more beard than Bilbo did in his disguise, who dropped his journal as the heavy dwarf buried him under him.

“Ori! Are you alright?!” a white haired, an older dwarf run to help his youngest brother back on his feet.

“How dare you throw him on Ori!” another dwarf with very unique pointy hairstyle run to kick the large dwarf on the stomach, but he rebounded backwards from the soft belly without actually hurting the other. As he stumbled aback, he ended up bumping on a young dwarf who was just practicing his archery skills, and the hit caused him to shoot his arrow far from his target.

Thank Aüle that arrow didn’t pierced anyone, but it did flew through one tent, and after a few seconds a group of very angry dwarves run out from it, ready to beat up the one who had ruined their shelter.

The dwarf with the bow was saved when a blond young dwarf came to his rescue, shouting that if someone laid even finger on his brother they wouldn’t live to see another day. Before the blond dwarf had time to hurt his fellow soldiers, a pair of strong hands lifted him up, and Bilbo couldn’t tell what the large dwarf with…. an axe attached on his forehead was saying to the other, probably tried to calm the younger one down.

“Put Fili down!” the archery-doing dwarf demanded, shooting an arrow towards the axe-headed one who dodged it successfully, and in middle of all that fighting the arrow changed it course as it hit one of the old dwarfs hearing horn. And from that it flew through another old dwarf’s white long beard, stopping when strong hand caught it from the air.

 

“EVERYONE SHUT UP AND STOP FIGHTING!”

 

Like those were the magic words, everyone stilled on their places as the bald big dwarf broke the arrow easily in two in his hands. Bilbo swallowed; he had never seen anyone so big and muscled.

“What the hell is going on in here?!” another big dwarf, still not nearly as big as the bald one, stepped out from the large tent, a grey wizard following him.

“It seems that our men were tired of waiting for the orcs to kill them, so they decided to do it by themselves.” the big dwarf huffed, eyeing murderously the messy crowd.

“I demand to know who started this mess!” the dwarf with the wizard shout, and quickly the dwarves pointed their blaming fingers towards the poor Bilbo.

“HE DID!”

Bilbo, who had curled himself into a small ball when the fighting had started, slowly stood up as the leader of the dwarves was approaching him. Oh he was screwed! The dwarf in front of him was big, muscled, dark and very angry. Bilbo’s knees shook as the blue eyes above him made him feel even more smaller than he already was.

“What is your name, solider?” the dwarf demand to know, and Bilbo mentally scolded himself and Smaug for not making up any alias for him.

“M-my n-name? Umm… What’s my name?” Bilbo asked, directing that last question for Smaug.

“Yes, so don’t play dump and tell me who you are.”

 “Yes, I, uh, I’ve got a name! Very dwarfish name too!”  Bilbo played time, but the dwarf in front of him didn’t look amused.

“Just say Fili.” Smaug whispered, not really wanting to admit that he didn’t know any dwarf-names.

“His name is Fili..!” Bilbo hissed back, head nodding towards the blond dwarf.

“I didn’t ask for his name, I asked for yours!”, the angry dwarf was getting impatient.

“Then Gollum, I met once a dwarf named like that.”, Smaug tried again.

“Gollum..?”, Bilbo repeated, the name tasting weird in his mouth.

“Gollum?”, the impatient dwarf questioned.

“N-no!”, Bilbo shook his head; he would never remember that alias!

“Oh right, Gollum was the name of that skinny guy who tried to eat me…”, Smaug remembered, and before he had time to suggest another name, Bilbo slapped his hand against his own back, blowing the air out of Smaug’s lungs.

Oh the dark haired dwarf was looking so angry right now, and Bilbo started to shiver even more. His act was slipping, and accidentally he stuttered his own name aloud.

“B-Bilbo… Ba-baggins..!”

“Bilbo Boggins?” the dwarf repeated, raising his eyebrow.

“Yes, Bilbo Boggins, at your service!” Bilbo bowed, hoping that he hadn’t give himself away.

“So, mister Boggins… Show me your invitation!”

Quickly Bilbo took the fake contract he had made with Smaug from his little pack, fearing that he had made some mistake in it when the dwarf examined it carefully.

“This invitation… is signed by Dain?” the dwarf motioned the bald one to come and have a look of that paper, whose eyes widened as he also saw the signet.

“You know Dain?” the big dwarf asked, and Bilbo kept nodding his head.

“Y-yes I do! I’m from the dwarven village from the south… Because I’m a dwarf, you know… And mister Dain said that I really should c-come here and train!” Bilbo lied, but didn’t stutter too much as he did so. So, maybe he had been good enough to fool those big guys.

“Dain must have gone crazy! Why else he would send this idiot here?”

“Now Dwalin, I don’t get this either, but I trust Dain.”

“So do I, but don’t you think there is something… Peculiar in this thing?”

“Well, the signet is real, there is not much we can do. Unless you’re not suited in war, and that’s our job to find out.” the dwarf-leader spoke, handing the paper back to Bilbo.

“Now! Clean this mess, and after that I want to see you all in the field back there! Since you all have so much energy, we should start the training right away!”

After saying that, the dark haired dwarf returned to his tent, the wizard throwing a questioning look towards Bilbo before following him. The dwarves muttered complains as they started to clean up, hissing how they hated that Boggins guy.

“Great, it seems that now I really won’t be making any friends.” Bilbo rolled his eyes as he started pick up the heavy axes and placing them back against the wooden walls.

Behind him the young dwarf called Ori eyed desperately the ground, searching for something he had lost when the fight had started.

“You looking for this?” he heard voice asking, and as he turned around the big bald dwarf was staring at him, a small journal in his hand.

“Ah, thank you very much!” Ori thanked with a bow as he got his journal back.

“Not big deal…”

“How did you know that it’s mine, mister…”

“Dwalin, at your service.” the big dwarf bowed, and Ori went speechless when he realized that he had let his commanding officer to introduce himself and bow before he did.

“I-I’m Ori, at your service!” Ori bowed again, almost blushing.

“I saw how you wrote something on it earlier, the journal I mean. You’re the scribe who writes down the events of the day, right?” Dwalin confirmed, and Ori nodded at that.

“Yes, but I’m also a solider, like my brothers!” the young dwarf hurried to add, making Dwalin chuckle a bit.

“I’m sure you are. You just need to grow a bit more beard, that’s all.” Dwalin patted the boy on the shoulder as he went ahead to the field, knowing that they would start the training soon.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, this was one of my favorite chapters to write! All the Mulan references and some Dwori!
> 
> Thank you all for comments, kudos, bookmarks and views! I'm truly thankful for them!


	7. Heart made of gold

Smaug slipped out from Bilbo’s back as they made their way on the field.

“I will help you in every way I can. You know, these training camps aren’t playgrounds.” Smaug had warned before disappearing in the long grass.

Secretly, Bilbo was a little bit happy when the dragon was away, knowing that now he probably wouldn’t be tripping over others. But at the same time Bilbo felt so lonely and scared when a group of angry dwarves was staring at him, bearing grudge from the earlier events.

Luckily, a deep voice commanded everyone to stand in a row, stopping the dwarves from murdering Bilbo with their eyes.

“I’m Thorin Durin, the son of Thrain, the son of Thror; your king. In this camp, you will obey all my orders, and mister Dwalin’s as well what comes to the training. From this day on, I want you all to come here, standing exactly on that place when the first rays of sun appear in the sky!”

Bilbo really tried to listen, but it was so hard to consecrate; the powerful dwarf, the same one who wanted to know his name, apparently the king’s grandson Thorin Durin was standing in front of them, with no shirt on. Bilbo swallowed, he knew that dwarves, especially the dwarf soldiers, were muscular; he had noticed that when taking care of Dain. But even Dain wasn’t so strong looking, so muscled, so handsome… Ok, he needed to concentrate! He would have plenty of time to envy another man’s body later when this all was over!

It really didn’t help Bilbo when Thorin’s best friend Dwalin had also abandoned his shirt and armor, leaning on a strong axe. Mahal, this dwarf was even bigger than the prince, but not quite as handsome, or that was Bilbo’s opinion.

“First I want to see how strong and wise you are! Balin, bring the weights!”

An old, white haired dwarf bowed as he handed the pair of two golden big coins, a thick strings attached on both of them, to his prince. Thorin thanked as he received them, then turning his pale blue eyes back to the dwarf soldiers.

“Kili! Shoot an arrow as high as you can on that post!” he commanded the young dwarf with the bow, who didn’t waste any time; in a blink of an eye, an arrow had hit the very top of the high post, Kili gaining a little applauses from other soldiers.

“Now, drop that bow of yours and come here.”

Not really knowing what was ahead of him, Kili did as told, and soon the two heavy coins were tied around his wrists, making it hard for even stand straight.

“Now I want you to climb up there and snatch that bow back!” Thorin said, trying hard to suppress his wicked smile as he saw how devastated the young dwarf looked.

“Up there? With these weights on? Are you crazy, it would be almost impossible even without these-“

Kili was quickly silenced by a murderous look from the older dwarf, and he only mumbled some curses as he walked towards the high post. Bilbo deduced that Kili was probably one of the youngest soldiers around here, him being clearly a dwarf but having actually no beard at all; only dark stubble masking his face. This made Bilbo’s heart ache a little; such a young lad should not be risking his life in the war.   

Kili stretched his arms a bit before placing his hands against the post, starting to climb up. But no matter how furiously he climbed, he didn’t even reach the halfway of the wooden post when he already fell down with a loud yelp. Others would have probably laughed if they hadn’t known that the same task was waiting for them too, but the dwarf with golden locks couldn’t help but snicker a bit.

“You think this is funny Fili? Come, you can try next.” Dwalin nodded towards the other young dwarf, who suddenly weren’t so amused anymore. And it comes as no surprise when Fili wasn’t any better than his brother, also falling down painfully on his behind. This time Kili got his laughter, not even caring to hide his amusement.

“Next one!” Thorin commanded, and a dwarf after dwarf failed to grab that arrow, no one getting even close to it. Eventually it was Bilbo’s turn to try, and needless to say that he didn’t success any better than the dwarves before him, actually he was one of the worst ones.

“Well, I can now see that none of you holds any power or wisdom. We have a long way to go…” Thorin sighed, hearing how the wizard who had sneaked to stalk their first practice chuckled lightly next to Dwalin. Rolling his eyes Thorin walked towards Bilbo, ripping the weights off from his wrist and pulled the short man up roughly by his collar.

“But don’t you worry; I’m going to make a dwarf out of you!”

As Thorin let him go Bilbo struggled to find his balance, falling almost over again when a wooden practice sword was shoved in his hands.

 

And then, the hell began.

 

None of the dwarves were actually good in anything, but Bilbo was clearly the worst one. Smaug wasn’t much of a help, usually only making things worst, sometimes doing so purposely, sometimes by accident.

When it came to archery, Kili was shining till he started to show off, accidentally almost piercing Thorin or Dwalin’s head time to time. His older brother Fili knew how to use weapons, but almost murdered someone when he was being too carefree with them. Those two boys kept the doctor Oin busy, who was at least spared from Thorin’s angry shouts, since the man was almost deaf.

The other dwarves were not so much of a trouble makers, more likely just lazy. The funny hatted dwarf Bofur was usually found when he tried to take a nap or smoke his pipe during the training sessions, and more than once another dwarf Nori was with him. Nori’s older brother Dori scolded him from that, but dismissed his own training when he was fussing too much over his youngest brother, the scribe Ori, who indeed was the youngest dwarf in the camp. If Dori hadn’t being so overly protective, he would have noticed that Ori wasn’t so weak, but the young dwarf didn’t have a chance to show his talent when his brother treated him like a child.

Beside these dwarves, Bilbo quickly learned the names of that large dwarf who had thrown Gloin in the air and the one who had the axe attached on his forehead: Bombur and Bifur, who were cousins. Also apparently Bofur was Bombur’s older brother, as well as Gloin was the younger brother of their doctor. And sure Bilbo remembered Dwalin, and soon he memorized his older brother Balin, who was acting as Thorin’s advisor. Sure there were many other dwarves in the camp too, but since Bilbo’s tent was closest to these guy’s, he couldn’t really name any others.

But, the fact that Bilbo remembered their names didn’t seem to change the fact that everybody most likely hated him. Especially the prince himself, Thorin Durin scolded Bilbo even more than he did others. And that was so unfair; at least Bilbo tried his best!

Okay, maybe he had tried to shot an arrow with the apple already pierced in it, but that was all Smaug’s doing! And maybe he had failed to carry heavy logs up to the hill, but he was a hobbit; they didn’t have muscles like dwarves did! But Thorin didn’t see a brave hobbit who was teased by a shrunken dragon; he simply saw a small dwarven solider, a very poor one so.

Bilbo found himself shaking every time Thorin approached him, fearing that the dwarf knew his secret. Well, Smaug had promised to protect him if the situation gets sticky (he was supposed to be his guardian, after all), but Bilbo really wasn’t sure whenever he should lay his full trust on that talking lizard. And well, you can probably already guess that if things ever get too bad, Smaug would leave Bilbo faster than the wind.

But really, Smaug was being kind of useful time to time. At least he made sure that Bilbo was to wake up on time and sometimes they actually had good conversations, so Bilbo wouldn’t feel so lonely. Smaug also made sure that the hobbit managed to look like a dwarf day after a day.

 

“These men will never be a proper soldiers! A one orc would easily take them all down!” Thorin cursed after another unsuccessful day. Dwalin, Balin and Gandalf were having a supper with him in his tent, it being the second largest one in the camp. Gandalf only had a bigger one, since he was much taller than the dwarves.

“Oh come on Thorin! Do you have so little fate in your nephews too?” Balin rolled his eyes.

“Fili and Kili are still too young, they don’t understand how serious this situation is. Why my grandfather ever thought that they should take a part on this war too?!”

“If you think them too young for this, then why did you hire that scribe? He is even younger than Kili.” Dwalin asked, and after a long sigh Thorin rubbed his forehead, trying to find the right words for explaining.

“His two older brothers, Dori and Nori got the invitations to join in the army. Ori followed them here and insisted that he should join too, even though Dori was pretty much against it. He is young, but an adult anyway, and he has an honest, willing heart; I couldn’t ask for more from a soldier (well some muscle and courage would be nice too). And we needed a scribe, and he has an excellent handwriting.”

“That’s true, he is almost better than me what comes to an old dwarfish languages.” Balin nodded, Dwalin shrugging his shoulders; he didn’t understand much about the literature and things related to it.

“He is a bit slow and reckless sometimes.” Dwalin commented, realizing that he had probably paid too much attention on the young lad’s behavior.

“Not as slow as that Boggins guy. I’m worried about Dain if he truly thinks that army needs a soldier like him.” Thorin stroked his short thick beard as he thought over all those times when he needed to scold their shortest dwarf.

“Thorin, not all of us are born as soldiers. This is just a training camp, give him some time.” Gandalf stepped in the conversation, much for Thorin’s annoyance.

“He is hopeless! He can’t even walk properly! Always stumbling on something or someone!”

“Well the lad just has too big boots. Maybe he is from a poor family.” Gandalf reasoned.

“That’s not my problem!”

“Thorin, if you are so worried about him, why don’t you try to talk to him and try to find out what are his strengths; just like you did with Ori.”

“YOU talk to him if you wish! I got better things to do!” Thorin snapped, and immediately the old wizard stood up.

“Maybe I will. Excuse me.”

With those words, Gandalf excused himself and left the three dwarves to enjoy their supper alone.

 

“Mister Boggins?”

Bilbo jumped when he heard an unfamiliar voice behind him. Smaug hid quickly behind a few large stones as Gandalf sat next to Bilbo, who was spending his evening by staring at a star-filled night sky.

“Y-you’re Mister Gandalf Grey, r-right?”

“Please my boy, just Gandalf. And if I remember correctly, your name is Bilbo Boggins; not Fili or Gollum, right?” Gandalf smiled, making Bilbo blush a bit as the embarrassing moment returned in his mind.

“Y-yeah…”

“Tell me, why are you here? You’re very petite dwarf, surely have not been forced to fight in the war?” Gandalf asked, wise eyes looking Bilbo with concern.

“Oh… No, no I was not forced to join in the army. I just… Well… I, I want to be here because-”

Bilbo swallowed, then relaxed a bit when he saw that Gandalf was still listening patiently.

“I have a nephew. And I fear that he and his family are in danger. I want to get strong so I could save them if the orcs reach to Erebor. I know I’m not much of a soldier now, but that’s why… That’s why I’m here, to get better, to get stronger.” Bilbo managed a weak smile, the training day had been really tough and he was tired.

Gandalf smiled back to him, pleased when he saw honesty in Bilbo’s eyes; after all, our little hobbit hadn’t lied much just now.

“You really have a heart made of gold.” Gandalf patted him on the shoulder, his words stabbing Bilbo’s chest.

“Well, a golden heart won’t safe anyone in this war.” Bilbo repeated Dain’s words, sadness drowning his mind as he remembered his warm home, the safety of Shire.

“In that, you are wrong, my friend!” Gandalf stood up and hit the ground with his wooden rod, still smiling to his new little friend.

“An honest, willing heart is what every soldier needs! Because a good soldier is not someone who knows how to take a life from others, how to do it fast and painfully. No, a good soldier knows how to protect, how to save a life and spare one. And you, Bilbo, have everything what a good soldier needs!”

“Expect I wouldn’t survive in the battlefield.” Bilbo snorted, gaining a little chuckle from the wizard.

“You will learn that if you just listen to Thorin and Dwalin; I know that our prince here is stubborn and overly proud most of the times, but he is a very good teacher, you will learn all the skills of surviving from him.”

Bilbo nodded at that, though he really wasn’t sure whenever he could learn anything from anyone who hated him so openly.

“You know, Bilbo, you really seem to be one of the nicest lads here. The night is getting late and you need to rest well, but you are welcome to come to my tent to have a chat anytime.” Gandalf offered another gentle smile to Bilbo, who thanked and nodded.

And no, as Gandalf retreat to have his good night sleep, he had no idea that Bilbo wasn’t actually a dwarf. He admitted that he had never met a grown up dwarf man so shy and short bearded, so small and physically so weak. But to think that a hobbit, one of those gentle folks, would have wanted to fight beside dwarves, sounded crazy even for him!

Bilbo should be proud that he managed to fool even the wise old wizard, but soon he was to find out the real danger of faking his identity…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow soon we're gonna see some real action! I hope that my poor english hasn't bothered anyone too much yet!
> 
> And thank you all for comments, kudos, bookmarks and views!


	8. Shine today

“Good morning! The sun is almost up! Eat your breakfast, get dressed and comb your hair, you wouldn’t want to be late from your lesson!”

“You call that a breakfast?” Bilbo rubbed his eyes as Smaug served him some tasteless… bread… At least Bilbo hoped it was bread and not a bird’s nest or something made out of mud.

“Don’t be picky. You will have to wait till the lunch time before that fat dwarf cooks something for you all.”

“His name is Bombur, and he seems to be pretty okay for a dwarf; at least he isn’t throwing mean looks towards me every time he sees me.” Bilbo snapped, closing his eyes and wrinkled his nose as he bit a piece from that… Well, bread.

“I don’t care how you call them. But you must go now, and please, try your best this time. We will never get close to Erebor if he thinks that you can’t fight.” Smaug sighed, getting impatient already even though they had been in that training camp only for a week and half.

“I ALWAYS try my best! And the truth is that I CAN’T fight!” Bilbo frowned before he run in to the field, fearing what Thorin had planned for them today…

 

 

 

“Today, I will make you try something different. Follow me!”

Though everyone was tired, Thorin’s words made them curious enough to follow him towards the forest with sharp minds. Bilbo wondered what this “something different” was to be: fighting against a real enemy? Oh he hoped that could still wait; Bilbo couldn’t even hold a sword properly!

But when Thorin stopped, they didn’t see any targets, no weapons and no enemies. It was just the trees and a huge river.

“I want to see how much stamina you guys have. So, today you will swim to the opposite shore with all your equipments on, fully clothed! There might be a situation in which you can’t get out by any other way but swimming.” Thorin stated, and everyone sighed; swimming was pretty easy of course, but very tiring with your clothes on. And to do that early in the morning… Damn their leader was mean!

When the others were annoyed, Bilbo was terrified; hobbits can’t swim.

“Smaug! I can’t swim, what do I do?” Bilbo whispered as low as he could through his panic to the dragon who had once again hid under his tunic.

“Relax, little hobbit. I have a great plan!”

Smaug’s _great_ plan was that he would slip in the water first, and Bilbo would just need to lay on him as Smaug quickly swims to the shore.

“I’m a great and fast swimmer, you will shine today!”

“I’m too heavy. You can’t possibly have enough strength to carry me, even in the water!” Bilbo protested, but Smaug only kept telling him that he was much stronger than he seemed.

When Thorin told Dwalin to show example to their soldiers, the big bald dwarf jumped instantly in the water, fully clothed and his axes hanging on his sides. Still, it seemed to be no trick for him to swam to the opposite shore trough the wide river, this taking from him only a minute or two.

“Ori, you’re next!” Thorin command, and the young dwarf showed only a little hesitation till he slowly slid in the water, swimming rather slowly but very determinedly through the river. His big brother Dori would have bitten his fingernails this whole time, if that would not be so gross and uncivilized habit.

Though Ori had been almost five times slower than Dwalin, he was exhausted when he finally had reached to the shore. Dwalin decided to show some mercy and pulled the tired lad up from the river.

“You did alright, at least you didn’t drown.” he commented, actually sounding pretty proud.

“I… Ha… I’m not used to swim…” Ori panted, and Dwalin patted his arms lightly.

“Sit somewhere where there is no shadow, so you won’t get cold.” the older dwarf laughed a little, but even after those big strong hands left his arms, Ori was feeling surprisingly warm and no matter how long he would have rested, he was somehow so sure that his heartbeat wouldn’t calm down.

“Boggins! Your turn!” the dwarf prince nodded towards the hobbit, who was so used to do everything after others.

“M-me? You mean, right now?” Bilbo gulped, but Thorin didn’t even care to answer to that question. And before Bilbo had time to think anything more, somebody pushed him forward closer to the shore.

Very slowly Bilbo lowered himself in the water, and when he saw Smaug’s silhouette through the dirty water, he laid on him slowly, hoping that the dragon hadn’t lied.

But miraculously, Smaug did have the strength to carry him. Bilbo pretended to paddle when Smaug swam further, everything going according to the plan. Until…

Yes, suddenly Smaug disappeared under him, and Bilbo sank. Oh, this time Smaug wasn’t being mean just for fun; he had just overestimated his own strength. This would just only hurt his pride, though. But his mistake could be very faithful to Bilbo…

“Boggins is drowning!”

“What happened, he swam just fine!”

“He’s too far away!”

Those were the sentences that the dwarves were shouting from the shore, but Bilbo couldn’t hear any of them. He gasped for air, but no matter how fast he kicked his legs or waved his arms he wasn’t able to keep himself up on the surface. The water was getting in his lungs, and soon he had already sunk wholly under the muddy water.

The thought of dying flashed through his mind, but before he gave up from hope somebody pulled him up.

Bilbo gagged the dirty water out from his lungs as the strong arms held his head above the water.  His hands grab to take a hold from those arms, and he blinked his stinging eyes as he raised his head to look his savior.

“M-mister T-Thorin?” 

The prince did not say a word, but the look in those blue eyes held something… Something strange, something that Bilbo had never seen in them before.  

Slowly he helped Bilbo on the shore, the one where Dwalin and Ori were standing. As Bilbo was safely on the ground, Ori kneeled in front of him, not really sure was there anything he could do to help the other. As Bilbo’s panic started to cool down, he noticed that his fake beard was in a danger to fall off and his ears weren’t so safely tugged under his hair. So he made himself look even more miserable than he was.

“Dwalin, take the others with you and teach them how to use axe. Ori, you go and fetch Oin here as fast as possible, understood?” Thorin spoke, surprisingly calm voice. And his subordinates didn’t need to hear him twice; in a blink of an eye they were already gone to do as told.

“I-I’m fine.” Bilbo stuttered, his body starting to feel cold. And he surely wasn’t pleased at all when he was forced to be alone with Thorin.

“You were about to drown, you’re not fine.” the voice above him grumbled, and Bilbo didn’t dare to raise his head to look up. But then he realized that he should probably thank the prince for saving him, but just when he was about to open his mouth Thorin spoke again, the familiar annoyance back in his voice.

“I should have known that you wouldn’t survive from a simple test like this. You really are a useless dwarf.”

After those hurtful words, nothing was spoken between the two men, and Bilbo didn’t even dared to breath properly until Ori returned with Oin and Gandalf.

“Didn’t you say that you wanted to sleep long this morning? What are you doing here?”

“I heard that Bilbo had gotten hurt, so I came here to see if my powers were required to help him.”

“I really am okay, so-” Bilbo interrupted Thorin and Gandalf’s conversation, gently pushing Oin away as the dwarf tried to examine him.

“Bilbo, please let Mister Oin to have a look at you!” Gandalf urged, until he said something to Thorin again and they ended up arguing. Oin put his hearing horn away, reaching for Bilbo’s face more determinedly. Ori was again unsure what his role was in this scenario, so he just kept shivering in his damp heavy clothes.

When Bilbo felt Oin’s fingers on his cheeks, he quickly flinched away and even though his legs felt weak, he managed to stand up.

“I SAID I’M FINE!” Bilbo yelled before running clumsily away, leaving the three dwarves and wizard dumbstruck.

 

 

 

 

It had been very hard with trembling fingers, but Bilbo had managed to glue his beard back on his own. He was shivering in his tent, still in a light shock.  The thing that he had run away under Thorin’s eyes had still not fully hit him.

“If I wasn’t doomed before, I’m now.” he sighed, not remembering when was the last time he had felt so miserably. Maybe when Dain told him that he was not suited for a war. And damn, the dwarf had been right! Bilbo should have never come! No matter what Gandalf had said, Bilbo wasn’t a soldier! And he will never be one! Curse his Tookish side which had made him think that he would have even a chance of surviving!

Bilbo’s moment of self-pitying was interrupted when he heard familiar hissing behind him.

“And where were you?” the hobbit demanded to know as he looked at the dragon with narrowed eyes.

“Out somewhere to catch my breath. I happened to hear that you put on quite a show in there, and the prince himself saved you! Did you feel like a princess-“

Smaug’s teasing was stopped when a heavy piece of armor was thrown on him, painfully pressing the small dragon on the hard ground.

“This is all your fault!” Bilbo shouted, “You were supposed to be my guardian!”

“And this is how you treat your guardian?! Did you even think to look for me after you were dragged on the ground?!  I could have drowned too!” Smaug protested, not telling Bilbo that he had escaped deep in the forest, not even stopping to check was somebody coming to Bilbo’s aid.

“Well, you didn’t drown.” Bilbo snapped.

“Neither did you.” Smaug fired back.

The silence was heavy in the tent as they both sulked to each other. At some point Bilbo decided to peek outside as the candle light in the tent had confused his idea of time.

“Great; it’s already night time!” Bilbo huffed, slapping himself on the forehead.

“Did you have some plans?” Smaug asked sarcastically.

“Shut up.”

Bilbo just felt so guilty when he had done nothing more than just caused some trouble and then just sat on his ass for the rest of the day. But, wasn’t that what he always did?

“No wonder that he hates me…” he sighed, and Smaug knew whom he was talking about.

“Why should he like you then? You don’t like him either.”

“I never said that I don’t like him!”

“ ”That stupid, overly muscled bastard” and “stubborn dwarf” aren’t really things you say about the person you like.” Smaug reminded him about the names he had called Thorin to the dragon in the evenings.

“Well, I was pretty mad back then.” Bilbo defended himself.

“But it’s always nice when you’re liked instead of hated.” he continued, gaining a laugh from Smaug.

“You hobbits, dwarfs, elves and humans have this strange thing that you want to be liked by others! “Liked” don’t bring you anything, you know! “Feared” is the status you should aim!”

“Oh well, I wasn’t expecting a lizard to understand this anyway.” Bilbo rolled his eyes, using the nickname he knew that would annoy Smaug greatly.

But instead of arguing, they both just chuckled a bit, and first time in that day Bilbo felt a little bit relaxed. But then he heard how someone called his name from outside.

“Mister Boggins? Are you okay?”

After Smaug had hid himself under Bilbo’s sleeping bag, the hobbit peered out from his tent and met Balin’s eyes.

“Good evening.” Bilbo nodded and Balin instantly gazed at the starry sky.

“Yes, yes it is, indeed. Are you feeling better? I heard what happened in the morning.”

“Oh, I’m fine, completely fine thanks.” Bilbo scrambled on his feet, out from his small tent.

“So, is there something you would want to talk about with me?” he asked, trying to smile so Balin would believe that he truly was feeling physically okay. But the old dwarf looked kind of grim.

“Thorin would like to have a word with you. Right now, in his tent.” Balin said, clearly not happily delivering this information.

No matter how much Bilbo wanted, he couldn’t decline, and with the reawaken fear he walked with Balin until they were standing next to the large tent.

“Well, good luck.” Balin laid his arm on Bilbo’s shoulder for a moment until he gently pushed the hobbit in dwarf disguise to walk in to the tent.

 _“Wait, am I going to be alone with him?!”_ Bilbo thought, feeling the panic rising again.

But it was too late; Bilbo was already inside, face to face with the blue-eyed dwarf. For a moment they just stared at each other, until Thorin sighed and sat down on a rock covered under some dead animal’s fur, but didn’t motioned Bilbo to do the same; the short, curly haired man didn’t even dare to move an inch without his commander’s permission.

“Do you know why you’re here?” Thorin finally asked, and after a little moment of hesitation Bilbo nodded.

“Has this something to do with the… Accident that happened in this morning?” he carefully asked.

“You could say so. Actually, this has something to do with everything that you have done these past two weeks.”

“Y-yeah, I figured that much out. But Mister Durin, I’m very sorry that I have caused so much trouble to you and for everyone, but it’s really important for me to-“

“Strip.”

“For me to continue this trai- WHAT?!”

“Take off your clothes.” Thorin repeated drily, his face not even flinching when Bilbo’s eyes blown wide open.

“E-excuse me? I, I don’t understand…”

“You understand me perfectly. Just take off your clothes, now.”

No, Bilbo really hadn’t understood anything, nothing at all…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm, let's see what Thorin is planning.... Though, you might have to wait for a week or two to find that out, since I'm going on a adventure and don't know when I'm back! 
> 
> And thank you so much for every comment, kudos, bookmark and view!


	9. Dress and leave

After Bilbo’s dramatic leave, Oin grabbed his hearing horn from the ground, patted his clothes clean of dry dirt.

“Well, if he has energy to run around like that, I guess he really is fine. Just let him recover from the shock for the rest of the day.”

After stating that, the doctor made his leave, and poor Ori was uncertain should he follow or wait orders from Thorin. Eventually the prince noticed him, telling the lad to go find Dwalin and others, join in the group. When the prince was finally alone with Gandalf, he stroked his damp hair and frowned.

“Something in him just isn’t right.”

“Come on, Ori is still so young; is normal for him to be a little uncertain in these situati-“

“I was talking about Boggins!”

Damn, Gandalf had wanted to prevent this conversation. Thorin had already sent some dwarves back to home, they being too old or too sick to fight. The wizard knew that Thorin probably saw Bilbo as a weakling, seeing only the shell of him, not the heart of righteous soldier. But dwarves were known to be stubborn, and Gandalf knew that he would just waste his time if trying to tell that to Thorin; the prince needed to notice it by his own.

Well, Thorin surely wasn’t going to stand for the whole day on the shore, clothes soaked and the wizard being his only companion. With a frustrated snarl he stared to walk back to the camp, leaving Gandalf alone.

Balin was waiting for him in his tent, reading something form an old papyrus.

“Back so soon?” he asked without lifting his gaze from the text. But Thorin’s next words made him abandon that piece of paper.

“I think we have a real, a real big problem with Bilbo Boggins.”

“And what makes him a problem instead of just being frustrating?”

Balin had had some short conversations with Gandalf about this matter. The old dwarf too agreed that even though Bilbo was clumsy and not strong-built, he must have his reasons for fighting, and Balin knew that it was not his job to tell a man not to protect what he loves. But of course, Thorin was too busy thinking that Bilbo was too short, too less bearded, too clumsy, too weak.

“I don’t think that there have been even a one night after his arrive when you haven’t said a word about him.” Balin teased, he too trying to change the topic like Gandalf tried earlier. But Thorin didn’t fall for that.

“I think that he is not what he claims he is.”

“What do you mean?” Balin stood up, the tone in Thorin’s voice telling him that the prince really was troubled.

“Today, he was about to drown during the swimming test-“

“What?! Is the poor lad alright?!”

“Yes, he even run away when Oin wanted to examine him. But that only made my suspicions grow…”

Balin was to hear a more detailed version about the events of the morning later, but now when knowing that Bilbo still was alive, safe and sound was enough for him and he wanted to know what Thorin had meant by saying that their soldier was probably a liar.

“When I saved him and lifted him up from the water, I noticed something. That he is even more fragile, more smaller than he looks. His armor and tunic are way too big for him.”

Of course Thorin had noticed many other things too when saving Bilbo from drowning; he had noticed how long the short man’s eyelashes were, how pretty the color of his hair actually was, how tiny but strong his hands were. But these were just minor details which Balin would need not to know.

“And when he didn’t let Oin to have a look of his body, it made certain that he is hiding something… Something big.”

“I don’t understand, Thorn. The lad is just small and in a shock after almost dying.”

Thorin sighed when Balin clearly wasn’t getting his drift. Now he needed to say it out aloud...

“When I saved him, and looked his face close up… He was quite pretty, too pretty actually.”

Those words shocked Balin even more than the news from Bilbo almost drowning. In his life Thorin had seen many attractive lasses, never calling any of them pretty! And Balin was sure of that, after all, he was like another father for the prince. 

But then, slowly Balin started to understand what Thorin might mean. And the most shocking part in it was the fact that Balin couldn’t really proof him otherwise. It actually made sense when you gave it a thought.

“You don’t mean that he is…”

“I’m afraid that he is…”

 Well, one of them needed to say it aloud, so Thorin inhaled deeply before stating it.

 “I think that _she’s_ a woman.”

 

 

And from that we get back to this awkward situation, Bilbo standing frozen in front of the prince in his tent, Thorin leaning his elbows on his knees. Because you know, if Bilbo was a woman, everything would make sense to him; some women in their race did grow a beard, usually shorter and neater one than males; just like Bilbo. And even though dwarven women were also pretty strong-built (Thorin had a sister, he ought to know), they were still more smaller than the men, and had a lower physique too. And when Bilbo had refused to see a doctor, Thorin was sure that this was because her secret would then be revealed.

And now he had put Bilbo in the ultimate test. If Bilbo had nothing to hide, there would be no problem for him to strip in front of his commanding officer, right?  Well yeah, this was a bit cruel and embarrassing, but believe me, Thorin could have been much more crueler.

“You understand me perfectly. Just take off your clothes, now.”

 _"Oh please, just let this be a bad dream!"_ Bilbo pleaded in his thoughts, knowing that running away now wouldn’t solve anything; if Thorin wanted him naked, he would do it with Bilbo’s permission or without it.

“R-right now?” Bilbo still tried to play time, voice, hands and knees trembling.

“In this second, please.” was the dry answer.

As you know, Thorin wasn’t completely wrong; Bilbo indeed had a secret, a secret that would be revealed if he needed to show his body to others. And Bilbo was so sure that Thorin knew, he knew that Bilbo was a hobbit! That he had saw his ears or noticed that his beard was a fake this morning. But… Maybe this was just some sort of test, having nothing to do with him being a different race? After all, if Thorin knew that he wasn’t a dwarf, why he waited till the evening to confirm that? That, Bilbo needed to make sure and so he gathered up his courage to ask this one question.

“M-may I leave my b-boots on?”

An odd question, Thorin thought, raising an eyebrow. But well, he had no need to see his- or her feet, so he nodded his head.

“Only if you manage to take your trousers off with them still on, that’s fine with me.”

Bilbo nodded, careful not to sigh and smile when he understood that Thorin didn’t know. Because if he did, the only proof he need was Bilbo’s big, hairy feet.

But then wait, why the hell his commanding officer wanted to see his naked body?!

As that question reached in Bilbo’s mind, he stiffened again, feeling how the air around them changed. Thorin’s eyes were determinedly fixed on the poor hobbit, his patience growing thin.

“Well? Are you going to disobey my orders?” he asked, his tone telling that doing so would be very unwise.

“O-of course not!” Bilbo stammered, and lifted his shaky hands to undo the laces in his tunic, wishing that he hadn’t left his armor in his tent; it would have taken more time to undress with that.

Thorin watched as Bilbo painfully slow undressed his tunic, revealing only little bit of skin of his chest as the laces were undone. Now, the moment of truth had almost come…

But as Bilbo slowly pulled the tunic over his head (careful for not letting it tangle with his beard or mess his hair!), Thorin saw only his bare chest, the sight surprising him when there was not a single hair on it, or breasts...

 

So, apparently he had been wrong; Bilbo wasn’t a woman. And the reason he had been so embarrassed earlier was most likely because he was ashamed of his hairless body. Well, it was an unusual, but Thorin had heard that there were few dwarves who had less or none hair on their body from different reasons, gene mutation or sickness etc. So, Bilbo just was hairless, small, weak dwarf man, nothing more.

Bilbo’s chest should have been the needed proof, and Thorin knew it. But when he was about to say that this was enough and he may leave, Bilbo had managed to pull his tunic over his head completely, and the combination of those sweet face and soft body made Thorin... made him flinch… And believe me, you don’t make a dwarf soldier, a prince on top of that flinch easily just with a bare upper body!

As Thorin still kept staring him so intensely, Bilbo felt how he was blushing. At first from the embarrassment, since he knew that his roundish, soft curved hobbit body was very far away from dwarves’ muscular chest and wide shoulders. But then he saw how something dark and flaming was dancing in Thorin’s ice blue eyes,  and had he not known better he would have called it a… a desire.

But no, that could not be it, of course not. But that fleeting thought still made him feel even more uneasy, the blush on his face now surely visible for the dwarf prince too. But Bilbo told himself that the look in other’s eyes was most likely a different level of annoyance, and for not to make Thorin any angrier, Bilbo brought his hands on his waistband-

But then he heard a low growl, and a few seconds after that the following words:

“Enough. Dress and leave.”

When Bilbo lifted his gaze, he saw how Thorin had turned to look away from him, his back facing Bilbo.

Not knowing what had caused this sudden turnaround, Bilbo pulled his tunic over his head ten times faster than when he had undressed it, and was out from the tent in a few seconds. He would have been so surprised if he had known how the mighty dwarf prince was blushed up to his ears, his body tingling in short of a way the warrior’s shouldn’t when seeing a soldier’s body… And not even the whole body, just the skin above waist.

 _“What… on earth… was that?!”,_ Thorin screamed in his mind, the images of Bilbo’s creamy flesh, round face, curly hair and huge eyes dancing in his mind. Oh Aüle! It should have not been so hard to tell him to stop the undressing, and certainly should not have been so hard for Thorin to restrain his urge just to rip all the remaining clothes off by himself!

Be a man or a woman, Bilbo Boggins was really a trouble. At least for Thorin Durin. And troubles were problems, and problems needed to be solved, or swept under a rug…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Sry this chapter wasn't so interesting, hope you get something out of it still.... 
> 
> But, Thanks everyone for comments, kudos, bookmarks and views!


	10. Just keep going on!

Bilbo stopped running when he was near the training field. Panting, he started to redo the laces in his tunic, not bothering to do so in Thorin’s tent.

“What… on earth… was that?!” he breathed out, not understanding why the prince had wanted to see him naked, stopped him in middle of undressing and most of all, what was that dark look in those blue eyes?

Sitting down on a log, Bilbo decided that he would not return in his tent for a while. He just not had the strength to put up with Smaug right after this. Like his day hadn’t been confusing enough, this happens and- Oh damn, his head was hurting like hell!

When it started to get cold, Bilbo almost stood up to go and talk with Gandalf. But the night wasn’t young anymore, and the wizard was probably sleeping, just like Bilbo was supposed to rest too; tomorrow, his training would continue. But the sleep was far away from his eyes, he felt too confused and miserable to lay down.  And oh well, even if Gandalf were awake, Bilbo didn’t want to bother anyone else anymore.

The chills were running through his spine as the air was getting colder. Not for the first or the last time, he started to curse Smaug, and his own Tookish side for getting angry of Dain’s words back then in Bag End, he cursed all the things that had ever made him join in the army. And just when he had cursed them all in his mind, he heard how heavy footsteps approached him, stopping in front of him.

“Boggins.”

When he looked up, it was no other than Thorin Durin standing in front of him. Quickly Bilbo stood up, bowing to his commanding officer. But before he had time to ask why the dwarf prince wanted to see him again, would he want him to undress completely now, even before Bilbo started to fear anything a piece of paper was shoved in his hands.

“That letter is signed by me and it will free you from your duty here.” Thorin stated and turned to walk away.

“I don’t want to see you here in the morning, so leave. Right now.”

The dwarf didn’t even turn to look back as he marched back to his tent, leaving Bilbo just to stand there the letter in his hands.

“I’m free to go…” Bilbo gulped, a smile lingering on his trembling lips.

But then, wait! No one had ever forced him to come here! No, aside Smaug, everyone had been against this, or would have been, had he told anyone about how he was going to disguise himself as a dwarf and join in the army to save his cousin and his fam-

Oh right, he had almost forgotten why he ever wanted this. For Frodo and his parents.

So, the letter in his hands was not a good thing, not good at all! He had failed, he had failed his nephew, Smaug, and himself.

“This, I can’t leave now!” Bilbo swallowed, thinking of how far he had already got. It should have been impossible for him ever to disguise so good that all these wise, great dwarves believed him. Well, without Smaug this truly was impossible, but then Bilbo stopped to think his guardian; what about the little dragon who was send here to guide and protect him? Well, Smaug hadn’t been exactly a great guardian till now, but Bilbo also haven’t been a great soldier. Now was the time to show what he was capable of, now or never, his Tookish side shouted, flaming inside of him!

And just when Bilbo had started to think how he would proof himself, his eyes met the high post, the arrow that Kili had shot still attached on it. No one had been enough strong to climb all the way up to get it. And on that moment, clutching the letter of resignation in his hands, Bilbo vowed that he would be the one!

And yes, Bilbo felt really bad when he sneaked in Balin’s tent to get those golden coins, but that was only his Baggins-side; his Tookish side just enjoyed the thrill of it.

After the struggle of carrying those heavy weights quietly to the field, Bilbo looked up at the dark blue sky; the sun would rise in an hour. 

Not wanting to waste any time, Bilbo’s clever fingers quickly managed to tie those strings around his wrists, and determinedly he started the climbing, only to fall back on ground right away.

“It would be hard enough without any weights!” he huffed as he stroked his sore backside.

“These coins aren’t helping at all!”

But then, he stopped to listen himself.

“These coins… Helping…”

Oh right! Now he got it! This test wasn’t about the muscle, it was about the mind! Just some simple problem-solving!  The weights weren’t there just to tease them!

And now than Bilbo knew that, he swung his hands around the post, making the strings of those golden coins twist around together, the weights making it hard just to pull them apart. Slowly, he started to climb up again, pulling the strings as he walked up the post.   

He slipped down from time to time, but never he would give up and let himself fall all the way down, no! And when he was almost halfway up, the sun peeked over the horizon, telling everyone to wake up for another day.

But as the dwarves scrambled out from their tents, they couldn’t believe their eyes; someone was climbing up the post to get Kili’s arrow, with the weights on! And that someone was no other than their smallest member, Bilbo Boggins!

“The lad is almost all the way up!” Nori rubbed his eyes, not believing them to see right.

“He figured out how to use those weights right!” Gloin blinked his eyes as the sunrays reflected themselves around the camp from the golden surfaces.

“No, look! He is slipping!” Ori got scared as Bilbo was again in a danger to fall down.

“Just keep going on, Bilbo!” Kili cheered, and eventually they all were shouting a words of encouragement to their smallest team member, really wanting him to prove Thorin and everyone that this task wasn’t impossible.

While putting on his armor, Thorin couldn’t understand the noises coming outside.

“Well, they really didn’t seem to like Mister Boggins, if that’s the reaction they got just from not seeing him around.” Thorin rolled his eyes, and right after that he fought to ignore the sharp sting in his heart.

After all, there was nothing he could do now. Bilbo didn’t belong to army, not even if he was quite young and healthy man. Yeah, a man, not a woman… This was for his own good, Thorin kept repeating, thinking of how easy it would have been to send the man away, that he should have done it much sooner like he indented to , before yesterday when he had saw that creamy body, those bright eyes, the soft curls of his-

The dwarf prince’s thoughts were interrupted when the cheering from the outside suddenly got even louder, the applauses could be heard clear.

Thinking that was too much, Thorin marched out from his tent, being stopped right after a few steps when an arrow hit the ground in front of him, Bilbo’s resignation letter pierced through it.

More cheers and some laughs were heard when the dwarf soldiers saw their leader’s face when he looked up and saw how Bilbo Boggins was sitting on top of the post, smiling down to Thorin almost cheekily.

“Didn’t I tell you to believe in him?”

Suddenly, Gandalf and Balin had appeared next to Thorin, the wizard’s smile reaching up to his ears.  

“Did you give him the weights?” Thorin’s eyes glanced to Balin.

"Oh yes, yes I did!” the older dwarf nodded, not feeling a tiniest bit bad about lying to his prince.

And they both hid them so well, their true feelings I mean: Bilbo was truly happy of course, he had done the impossible! But even through his happiness he felt great urge just to crawl back down, put his feet on hard ground again. But he would ruin everything if he started to whine that he wanted to come down now, so he hid his nervousness and decided to enjoy little more of his well-deserved, finally positive attention.

And Thorin, well, he couldn’t lie that he wasn’t impressed about this all, but he tried to keep his poker face on. But doing so was becoming so hard, so very hard when he saw Bilbo’s smile, how the sun rose behind him, making his curly, honey-brown hair shining, making him look like some sort of angel.

After that morning, things just started to roll for Bilbo.

He didn’t just miraculously changed into a great, powerful warrior, but now he had more self-confidence than ever, his Tookish side being so proud of him! The others seem to like him better, even Thorin, though he didn’t show his attachment often. Actually, he was just little less grumpy around Bilbo, and didn’t say mean things about him anymore.   

Slowly, but surely they all got better at fighting, archery and handling the axe. Swimming was the only thing that Thorin and Dwalin agreed to forget, since there would not be much of deep lakes or rivers near Erebor anyway, or Thorin just didn’t want to repeat the scene from the first time. Not the scene Bilbo being about to drown, no! I mean the scene when he held the smaller man in his arms, his panting and wet skin awaking something disturbing inside of him… But anyway, the point is that the group of hopeless dwarves got more energy to train and fight when they had seen how the smallest and most hopeless of them had done something unbelievable and unexpected.

“Well well. Looks like you have put on some muscle.” Smaug looked at Bilbo’s body as the hobbit was stripping himself for a bath, making sure that he was alone and the lake wasn’t too deep.

“And it’s certainly not thanks to your help.” Bilbo snorted, being happy that he had lost some fat around his body, not still being anything like muscular but maybe a bit closer to a warrior’s body now.

“Ha! Without me you wouldn’t even be here!” Smaug gave a halfhearted protest, as he was more interested in catching small flies for an evening snack.

Bilbo rolled his eyes, and after he was done with the undressing, he carefully placed his clothes on the ground and removed his fake beard.

“Just stay in guard!” he told to Smaug as he stepped in the freezing water. Well yeah, it wasn’t nice to wash up like this, but he rather dipped in a cold water than stayed dirty for weeks like dwarves seemed  (or smelled) to do. And well, even though it was kind of cold, it was also relaxing, to wash the sweat of the day away.

But Bilbo’s relaxing bath time was over sooner than he expected; out of nowhere, Kili jumped in the lake (the deeper part of it), his brother following close behind. Ori shyly followed them, rolling his eyes to the two childish brothers as the waves of their diving had hit his face.

“I won! You’re so slow Fili!” Kili laughed, until Fili pushed his head under the water, grinning when Kili desperately waved his arms.

Bilbo was thankful that the dwarves didn’t seem to notice him through their fun. Slowly, he started to make his way to the shore, having just enough time to grab his fake beard till he hear how Ori shouted his name.

“Mister Boggins! Look, Mister Boggins is here!”

Instantly, Fili and Kili stopped their rough playing, turning their full attention towards Bilbo who dropped himself back in the water, desperately patting his fake beard on his chin.

“Hello Bilbo! So this is where you spend your evenings? We had wondered where you always disappear after the training!” Kili started to swim towards him.

“Y-yeah, I like to keep myself clean.” Bilbo stammered, cursing that now he couldn’t get out from the water without showing his big feet to these dwarves. He would have to wait and probably freeze death as he couldn’t keep himself warm by swimming.

“Well that will be hard after we leave to fight!” Fili laughed, and soon all the three dwarf’s had swam next to him, making it impossible for him to escape.

“You know, we had wanted to apologize our behavior towards you from the first weeks. You’re much tougher than you look!” Kili and Fili patted the poor hobbit on shoulders.

“Oh, th-that’s all fine. No hard feelings.” Bilbo shivered, mostly because of the cold but also because of the fear of reveling his true identity.

“Why haven’t come to sing with us in the evenings? Everyone would love to have chat with you and get to know you better!” Ori asked, and after agreeing Fili stated that no one really knew anything about their smallest dwarf.

Before Bilbo had time to answer, another dwarf jumped in the water near them.

“Hullo lads! Oh, look! Bilbo is here too!” Bofur waved, and soon Nori and Gloin had also found their way in the lake and around Bilbo.

Before any questions were asked, they all were buried under a big wave as Bombur jumped in too, Bifur following shortly after him.

Damn, now Bilbo was surrounded by all these dwarves! And where the hell Smaug had gone? Yeah, what a great guardian he surely was…

“Y-you know what lads? Let’s just wash up, and then we can go and sing all you want? Right?” Bilbo tried to turn their attention away, gaining weird looks from the dwarves around him.

“Wash ourselves? Well, I guess we could do that too.” Gloin shrugged his shoulders.

“Yeah, we mostly came here to play and have some fun.” Fili grinned, and then turned around to splash some water on Nori’s face.

And soon, almost every dwarf tried to drown others, noises of water splashing filling the air. But Ori remained Bilbo’s side, leaning closer to speak with him.

“Mister Boggins, you need no to feel ashamed of your body here with us; no one’s going to judge or make fun of you.”

“I-it’s not that-”

“Well look at me; I’m not much bigger than you and even I don’t have so much hair, neither does Kili. I know that you’re bit more mature than us, but your body is quite small, so it’s all okay.” the young dwarf tried to cheer Bilbo up.

“Well, thank you Ori, b-but I’m all fine like this. I, I just want to wash up and then go to rest.” Bilbo smiled back to him, and maybe Ori really would have let him go, but then Bofur took a hold of Bilbo’s arm, pulling him into the deeper part of the lake.

“Come on, Bilbo! Just relax and have some fun lad! I promise you that I won’t let you drown!”

And like this hadn’t been bad enough, Bilbo felt how his fake beard was slipping off. But he had no idea how to flee from this situation.

“If you’re afraid of drowning, I can take you on my back!” Nori offered, and everyone else seemed to love that idea, expect Bilbo of course.

“N-no! Please, no need for tha- Uah!”

In a seconds, Kili had already grabbed Bilbo from ankle, and just when Bilbo was sure that they all were going to see his feet something made Kili to lose his grip with a loud “ouch”.

“Something bid me!”

“What?! A fish?”

“No! More like a-“

“Look! There’s a snake!”

“Snake!”

“Let’s catch it! We can grill it later!”

“Where did it go?!”

“There!”

And so on and on. Finally, finally Smaug had done something useful! As others tried to catch the “snake” (another nickname that Smaug hated, by the way), Bilbo quickly made his way back to the shore, and as he was safely hidden behind the reeds he heard how Dori was calling worriedly his younger brother from the opposite shore, and then Bilbo saw how Ori quickly scrambled out from the water, tied a little towel around his waist and run. After covering his feet, Bilbo did the same.

“Well that was… dangerous!” Bilbo sighed and combed his damp hair with his fingers.

“Tell me about it!” Smaug huffed, walking beside the hobbit as he too shook the wetness away from his body, tongue licking his lips.

“Who is the best guardian now?”

“Hmm, you are.” Bilbo smiled, almost fondly to the dragon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for comments, kudos, bookmarks and views! They all inspire me to contiune!


	11. Big and Strong

Ori felt so lucky when he had managed to flee before his oldest brother had time to come and suffocate him with his constant caring. Well sometimes Dori worrying over him was kind of nice, but Ori wasn’t a little dwarf anymore; he was an adult, a soldier on top of that. He didn’t need someone to run after him anymore.

“Not with your brother this time?”

Ori stopped and lifted his gaze up from his feet; Mister Dwalin was standing only few meters away from him, wearing only his trousers, axes and boots. Well, the sight wasn’t something new to Ori; after all, this was how Dwalin usually looked when they were training. But this time Ori was also naked, wearing only his small towel (which most of the dwarves didn’t even bother to bring along, but Dori had taught his little brother to be modest), and the situation quickly became a bit awkward for the youngest dwarf.

“I’m fine without having Dori with me all the time.” Ori said and straightened his back to look as much as adult as he could, but ended up feeling very, really small and almost tiny next to Dwalin.

“Hmm, maybe. But you still need someone to look after you; after all, you can be pretty reckless sometimes.” Dwalin smirked teasingly, reminding the young dwarf about the “that was close”-situations he had got into during the training.   

As Ori knew that the older dwarf was not trying to hurt his feelings, he smiled back to him, wrapping the towel around his waist a little more securely.

“Well, I think that I need a bit more training with the axe; they’re quite heavy you know.” he laughed a little, thinking of how he almost chopped Gloin’s head off when he had first used the dangerous weapon.

“Would you like to have a private lesson then?” Dwalin ask suddenly, pointing the two axes that were attached to his belt.

 “Umm, sure. I just go and put something on fi-“ Ori stammered and was about to go to his tent to dress himself, but before he had time to leave Dwalin gently grabbed him from the wrist.

“No need to, your current state is all fine. After all, you would just get sweaty during the training.” the bald dwarf nodded, making Ori’s big eyes go wide as plates. Dori would freak out if he saw Ori training only with his towel on in a cold night with a heavy axe! But, Dori wasn’t here now, was he? And Dwalin did have a point; why bother to dress up when he was only going to sweat?

Ori had just time to nod when Dwalin already started to drag him away, but not towards the usual training field, but into the near forest. In there, the older dwarf handed one of his axes to Ori, showing him how to take a good hold from it.

“Firmly, like this.” Dwalin guided Ori’s hands on right places, pressing his own chest against the smaller dwarf’s upper back.  The feeling of skin against skin made Ori shiver a little, and it was very hard for him to focus on the training. But he forced himself to try; after all, he didn’t want to disappoint Mister Dwalin.

Dwalin noticed how the younger one trembled against his chest, knowing well that it wasn’t because of the cold night air. He allowed his lips to curve in a small smirk. Oh how lucky he was! The little dwarf had surprised him many times when showing to be more than just a quiet scribe, being actually very brave during the training. So now feeling the little one in his arms as a little more vulnerable, Dwalin felt somewhat satisfied. Although, he also liked Ori’s bold side, as well his sophisticated side (most likely learned from Dori, when the reckless side referred to Nori).  Ah well, let’s just say that the older warrior liked pretty much everything about the scribe, but had not yet even admit that fact fully to himself. But what he had admitted was the thing that he wanted to know Ori better.

Ori was getting more nervous in each passing seconds, and he would have dropped the axe as he swung it if Dwalin’s strong hand weren’t there to catch it before falling.

“Carefully.” heard Dwalin’s deep but soft voice, and Ori apologized right away.

“I’m sorry, I’m just a little nervous, this is my first private lesson here.“

 _And I’m almost naked –_ he would have liked to add, but decided not to point out the oblivious.

“No need to be nervous; we all have started from the bottom.” Dwalin said and Ori turned around slowly to look at the strong body he had leaned against just seconds ago.

“It’s hard to believe when looking at you! You are so big and strong!” Ori couldn’t help but shout, his eyes marveling older dwarf’s from, making Dwalin feel proud but a bit uneasy at the same time.

Just when Dwalin was about to praise Ori back, maybe even have an excuse to touch him again, they both jumped as Dori’s worrying shouts were heard from the distance.

“Ori! Ori where are you!”

Ori sighed and bowed his head down. Damn, of course Dori wouldn’t give up so easily.

“It looks like your brother needs you.” Dwalin spoke, gaining a small nod from the ginger haired dwarf.

“I guess I should be going. Thank you for teaching me, I really appreciate it!” Ori hadn’t forgotten his manners, making the taller dwarf chuckle a bit. Then Dwalin actually leaned down, placing a soft kiss on Ori’s temple.

“ ‘Till the next time.” Dwalin smiled, leaving the surprised and confused Ori just to stand there, eyes glued into Dwalin’s back as the warrior quickly walked away.

And even when Dwalin was a good distance away, he could still hear how the oldest of Ri-brothers shouted to his youngest brother things like “why are you wearing so little so late? You will catch a cold by sweating after a bath” and so on and on…

Of course Dwalin was a little disappointed that his moment with Ori hadn’t last longer, but he was also happy from the time they had have. So when he was making his way back to this tent he didn’t even try to hide his smile.

“Didn’t think that I would need to remind you that we are not here to play.”

Dwalin turned to look at Thorin who was smoking his pipe outside his tent, eyes glaring at his tall friend.

“I wasn’t playing; just teaching some techniques to our scribe.” Dwalin grinned. Thorin rolled his eyes at that.

“Please! I have seen how you look at him; you were playing.”

“And I have seen how you look at mister Boggins; you really want to “play” with him, don’t you?” the bald dwarf teased his friend back, making Thorin almost choke on his pipe.

“I do not desire him in that way!” Thorin managed between his coughing, making only Dwalin’s grin grow wider. He walked next to Thorin and started to pat him on the back.

“Just keep telling yourself that, but I think that everyone else have noticed it too. Come on, I know we are heading to war, but that’s only one reason more why you should enjoy your time fullest in here.”

Thorin coughed few time more, until he turned his eyes towards his best friend, glaring at him murderously. That was when Dwalin knew to stop his teasing and slowly he backed away to his tent, wishing a good night as he did so.

“First the wizard and now even you and your brother.” Thorin hissed between his teeth even though Dwalin was gone from his sight.  

  

 

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO sorry it took me ten days to update this! But here is some Dwori for you (sry, there might not be much about them in future anymore...)! 
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you all for the comments, kudos, boommarks and views! I love them all!


	12. Boyfriends give you flowers

“What, you’re leaving?! That’s pity…”

“I’m afraid I have to, Bilbo. I have seen how you all have grown to be great soldiers, and I need to let the king know about it.”

Bilbo hated goodbyes! He had not showed (and never would admit) it, but he had actually cried when Drogo left the Shire with his family. And now he couldn’t deny that his eyes were a little teary when he needed to say goodbye to Gandalf. The wizard had become very close to him, they had shared some long and good conversations in the evenings after the dwarves had stopped their singing. The only thing that had shadowed those merry conversations was Bilbo’s fear that he would accidentally say too much and reveal his true identity. Well, Bilbo was sure that Gandalf knew how to keep a secret, but the wizard was still a good friend with the dwarf king, and so it was safer to keep his mouth shut. 

“Thank Aüle, you’re finally leaving.” Thorin had appeared next to them, relief clear in his tone when he saw how the wizard was saddling his horse.

“Oh don’t you worry, my prince! I promise you that we will meet again after you have successfully won the war.” Gandalf promised with a wide grin.

“And we will meet again too?” Bilbo asked, a slight taste of worry lingering in his tone.

“Of course we will, my friend.” Gandalf ruffled Bilbo’s curly hair slightly, then he got up in the saddle and fixed his wise eyes on Thorin.

“And you will have to promise me that you will wait mine and your grandfather’s orders before hurrying in the battlefield!”

To that, Thorin nodded, reminding the wizard that he wasn’t an idiot. And to that statement, Gandalf just chuckled, and soon his white horse had carried him away from the dwarf’s sight.

“Oh I’m surely gonna miss him!” Bilbo sighed, and Thorin rolled his eyes for that.

“Well at least someone will. Come on, we got some training to do, mister Boggins!”

And even though Gandalf’s leave had saddened the hobbit a little, he merrily followed his king to their usual training field. His and Thorin’s relationship still wasn’t the warmest one, Bilbo was still a bit of afraid of the big dwarf, but there wasn’t much of that tension left that they used to have. But even though Bilbo was unaware of it, Thorin had started to feel a whole kind of different tension around the disguised hobbit. Constantly the dwarf prince found himself from thinking a some casual way to ask the little dwarf to spend some time alone with him, but he wasn’t as suave in his actions as Dwalin was. And of course Thorin wanted to spend some time with Bilbo only because he felt need to get to know him better purely for the academic reasons! Because Bilbo was only one whom family or bloodline he had never heard of, and knowing these minor things was important since he was his king and leader in this war.

Yeah, all this only for the academic reasons, of course. Since Thorin Durin wasn’t like his friend and bodyguard Dwalin, who wasted his time by playing with a cute amateur warrior, who spend his nights by daydreaming of their little scribe. The prince was not a fool like that, and so he knew that even though he really wanted to get to know Bilbo better, he also needed to keep a good distance between them. But on that specific day, the day the old wizard had finally left him alone, keeping distance was pretty hard: Bilbo was ten times better warrior compared to his first day on the camp, but he still needed much guidance with weapons and especially with the sword, which was Thorin’s bravura.  And now that there was no annoying wizard to have arguments with, Thorin kind of had all the time in the world just to watch how clumsily the small dwarf tried to swung the heavy sword, and soon he couldn’t bear just to watch it anymore.

“Here, let me show you.”

Bilbo flinched as the prince had suddenly appeared next to him during his training. Usually Thorin wasn’t the one who came and corrected his hold of the sword; the dwarf prince just sent someone else, someone less scary, to teach the poor hobbit. So Bilbo couldn’t focus properly when Thorin took his sword and showed a few good swings.

“You got it now?” Thorin asked as he handed the sword back to Bilbo.

“Ah! Y-yeah, I think so!”  Bilbo stammered and clumsily took a hold of his heavy sword. And when I say heavy, I truly mean it; for a hobbit, the dwarven swords were way too heavy, and it’s no wonder that when Bilbo took the sharp weapon back to his shaky hands, he nearly dropped it.

“Too heavy?” Thorin raised an eyebrow and gained a nervous laugh from the smaller one.

“Yeah… I…Never before this camp, I never really had used any swords.” Bilbo confessed, ashamed to show any more weaknesses to the prince. He was sure that Thorin would scold him again now when he got a chance to do so, but instead of that Thorin took the sword again from him and examined it carefully.

“Hmmm, you’re right; this sword is quite too heavy for a dwarf as small as you.”

Yeah, it wasn’t nice to be reminded again how small Bilbo was compared to the others…

“I might have the solution, wait here.”

Bilbo lifted his surprised eyes from his boots, but Thorin had already walked away. Oh, so the dwarf prince wasn’t going to mock him after all. And only after a few minutes Thorin had come back, carrying a small sword in its scabbard.

“Here.” Thorin said and gave the sword to Bilbo, who didn’t quite understand the meaning of this strange gift.

“It is an elven made sword, or like Balin descripted, a cheese knife. Gandalf gave it to me, because the blade should shine blue if there are orcs around. But I don’t need a sword to tell me when the enemy is close, and it is light enough for you to practice the wielding.”

In his mind Bilbo grinned to Thorin’s self-confidence, but bowed thankfully for this thoughtful gift.

“Thank you very much, Master Durin; I will treasure this sword!”

“Just use it wisely.” Thorin coughed to his fist and then asked Bilbo to repeat some basic movements that Thorin had showed to him.

Well, even with a better sword it took some hours for Bilbo to do the basics properly, but Thorin was very patient with him and as the day grew older, Bilbo realized that he was actually having fun. And judging by the faint, lingering smile that appeared time to time on Thorin’s lips, maybe the prince was actually feeling a bit more relaxed too.

The sun had already started to set when they finished their intense training. Bilbo was covered in sweat, panting and wiped his forehead with his calloused fingers. Thorin wasn’t even half as tired just from teaching techniques, but still his heart was beating fast, his breathing almost unsteady.

“Are you alright?” he asked as Bilbo took few deep breaths and putted his new sword away.

“Yeah, I think so.” Bilbo nodded before he straightened himself up and smiled generously to Thorin.

“Thank you, I learned a lot today.”

Oh damn, there was this smile again. The smile that made Thorin’s chest feel tight but his head light. But now that smile made him feel a bit more awkward too, since now Bilbo wore it with sweaty and tired, but absolutely grateful face. His voice was breathy and his eyes glimmered, reflecting the last of the dying sunlight.

“Uhm, you’re welcome.” Thorin stuttered, and after hearing his own voice he quickly fixed his majestic look back on his face, blinking his eyes away from staring at the small soldier.

“Just go to rest now. Tomorrow is going to be another long day.”

Bilbo started to collect his things, fondly smiling to his new sword and began to walk towards his tent when Thorin suddenly called his name again.

“Mister Boggins. Just wanted to tell you that you did great today. Good night.” Thorin nodded and Bilbo’s smile widened at his words.

“Good night!”

 

Back in his tent, Bilbo couldn’t stop smiling like a completely fool. He hummed a happy song as he started to undress his disguise, making the small dragon in the corner of his tent curious.

“Well somebody has had a happy day. Did you managed to skip the training today?” Smaug snorted, gaining a playful smirk from Bilbo.

“If you would care to look carefully enough, you would see how I’m completely exhausted from the hard training.”

Smaug glanced a look towards the hobbit’s sweaty form, wondering why the hell Bilbo was so awfully happy when he usually was just tired after a rough day.

“Today I get to train with the prince himself, and he actually praised me afterwards! Isn’t that great, I’m getting better at fighting each day!”

“So you’re giggling like a teenaged hobbit lass just from getting a few nice words from a handsome dwarf?” Smaug teased and Bilbo rolled his eyes for that.

“Just so you know, he also gave me this sword to make the training a bit more easier for me.” Bilbo showed his new weapon to his guardian, who wasn’t interested about elvish handwork.

“Usually boyfriends give you flowers.” heard Smaug’s sarcastic comment, but Bilbo just ignored that. He knew that he had succeeded before in the camp too, but this had been the first time when Thorin had said anything nice to him, and just from those few simple words from those thin and usually so grim lips had made Bilbo feel like he could do anything! Maybe the prince wasn’t such a terrifying person as he had first thought, not at all! Maybe someday, they could even be friends, now Bilbo dared to hope that much!

“Maybe someday I’m going to be a real warrior too!” Bilbo spoke out loud as he laid down on his blanket. Smaug sneered at that those words, but before the dragon had a chance to open his mouth to say another rude comment, he was pulled on Bilbo’s lap and gained a few petting strokes from the happy but very tired hobbit.

“I probably should thank you too, for bringing me here. You’re a much better guardian than I first thought!”

At first Smaug was a bit too surprised to do anything, but soon he crawled his way out from hobbit's hold and cleared his throat.

“Well, you surely keep me busy some days!” Smaug said, thinking back all the times when he had to do a few tricks from preventing others from noticing Bilbo’s true identity. And let’s not forget that Smaug was the one who always helped Bilbo with his disguise and even teach Bilbo some old dwarf language, so his cover was more believable.

“I know, thank you.” Bilbo whispered before he closed his eyes and let himself fall into a well-deserved sleep.  

Smaug watched the hobbits peaceful form and felt something… well, something unfamiliar in his chest and he didn’t like it. He never liked to feel anything expect proudness and all the other cold and strong feelings and the warm tugging in his heart now wasn’t the one he liked. Nor he liked the small knot he had in his throat, and if Smaug had ever learned a name for that feeling he could have called it as a quilt. But now he only knew that he hated to feel like this, and the cause of that unwanted feeling was this stupid hobbit in front of him.

“I must end this stupid journey as soon as possible.” the dragon told to himself, and it didn’t take too long for him to create a plan which would make them nearer Erebor sooner than expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry that this is so late! Life hasn't been too fair for me lately, but I really really really really pray and hope that it will get better soon! I also have a some sort of writingblock, but it shoudln't affect much to this fic; I have already written it almost to its' end, I just forget to update it... 
> 
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> 
> But still, Thank you all very much for every comment, kudos, bookmark and view!


	13. There to help me

After three days Gandalf could almost see how the mighty kingdom called Erebor peeked behind the mountains. A smile lingered on the wizards lips, soon the tiring trip was to be over. And soon he could tell the king that what a great job Thorin had done when teaching those amateur soldiers. Gandalf wasn’t so excited to send those big hearted dwarves to the war, but if anyone could take the orc-army down his new friends would.

“Just watch orcs; Bilbo Boggins will surely surprise you in the battlefield!” Gandalf snickered to himself, fondly thinking the small dwarf, the one who at first didn’t even believe in himself but in the end had surprised them all. And Gandalf was sure that Bilbo and his golden heart were to be the strength of the dwarven company.

“Bilbo Boggins. Something in that boy was so familiar.” Gandalf stroked his long grey beard, thinking back the conversations he had had with his friend. The first time when he had seen the small dwarf was when Bilbo had started that stupid fight on that first day on the training camp, but as they spend the evenings together by chatting about different topics, Gandalf could have almost sworn that he had known Bilbo since the latter had been a little boy. But that can’t be, because even though Gandalf had traveled a lot, he hadn’t spent much time in a small dwarf-villages, the kind of ones which Bilbo told he was from. Instead Gandalf was very familiar with hobbits, having spent many summers with those merry and relaxed folks. The one village, Shire had burned in his mind, warm memories washing through him every time he remembered that place.

Well, of course Shire wasn’t like a paradise on Middle earth; even Gandalf had grim memories from there. The saddest one was that one cold winter when his close friend, Belladonna Took and her husband passed away. That tragedy had been almost too much for Gandalf to bear, and after making sure that Belladonna’s young son had a new good home to grow up, he had left Shire to get his thoughts elsewhere. And now that he thought about it, that might had been the last time he ever visited in Shire.

Oh he should go back there as soon as this war was over! He was curious to see what had become of that young hobbit lad. Hopefully he was as courageous as his mother had been, and had not grown up to be just an ordinary Shire folk like his father was. Now what was the name of that boy again? Bunbo, Banbo, Bingo… Oh yeah, Bilbo Baggins-

Gandalf halted his horse so fast that he was almost in danger to fall off from the saddle. Suddenly it all started to make sense, and Gandalf could only scold himself for being so unthinkable. Oh how he could have been so blind! Now that he thought about it, he should have seen that Bilbo had his mother’s eyes and his father’s caramel brown curly hair. And surely it had been weird that an adult dwarf man was so petit, hairless and a good chatting partner!

Gandalf did some fast thinking, and came into the conclusion that he couldn’t bear it if Belladonna’s son was to die in the war between dwarves and orcs, and if the dwarves were to find out that Bilbo was a hobbit, he could be punished for lying. You see, Gandalf knew how proud folks the dwarves were, and faking your identity to join in the army would be a serious crime, no matter how good soldier Bilbo would have made! Gandalf turned his horse around and started is journey back to the camp, hoping that he could make it on time!

But when he finally had made his way back, he couldn’t believe his eyes; the dwarves had already left the camp, probably marched towards the war and orcs.

“And I especially told him to wait my word!” Gandalf cursed, regretting that he had trusted that stubborn dwarf prince to listen his words. But Gandalf had no idea what had happened in the camp few days ago, only a day after his leave.

 

 

  _Two days ago..._

 

“Master Durin!” Ori run in to the prince’s tent, interrupting Thorin, Dwalin and Balin’s breakfast. A three pair of eyes were staring at the young scribe who talked way too fast for anyone to make even one sensible word out of his babbling.

“Calm down and tell us what is it, lad!” Balin told, his younger brother smiling amused next to him, eyes fixed on his little crush.

“We got this letter this morning, from the message dove.” Ori panted and gave the letter he had been holding this whole time to Thorin.

“It has the king’s signet!” the scribe noted, and Thorin couldn’t believe his eyes when he started to read his grandfather’s letter.

“What is it Thorin?” Balin asked and walked next to the prince.

“My father… He has informed my grandfather that he needs our help in the north, the orc army is growing strong there.”

“So our men get to finally see some real fighting!” Dwalin clapped his hands together with a grin.

“When do we leave?”

Thorin shut his eyes tight at first, took a deep breath and sighed.

“Immediately.”

 

\---------- 

 

Bilbo was shaking only a little when he packed his things and wore his armor. Well of course the whole idea of this journey was to get close to Erebor, but this came way too suddenly! Yesterday Thorin had just promised that today was going to be just another rough training day, but now the prince wanted them to march towards the war, even though their training wasn’t even finished yet. But apparently this was their king’s order, and even the average soldiers were needed against the wicked orcs.

“What a bad luck that Gandalf just left us. If he were here, I wouldn’t be this, well, scared.” Bilbo confessed to his little dragon friend, who was making sure that the hobbit was packing his backpack so that there was left enough room for Smaug to travel comfortably.

“You’re not exactly the luckiest person in this world.” Smaug murmured just something for an answer, pleasant how easy it had been to trick even the mighty dwarf prince.

Last night Smaug was almost scared when things had rolled so well for him. It wasn’t hard to slip in the scribe’s tent, forge a letter from the dwarf king, even forge the signet (yeah, Smaug had not lived over hundreds of years for nothing). After the letter was done, he had used his wings again after the many years, since it was much safer for him to crawl in the shadows than fly in the sky when he was this small. And well, it would have been very embarrassing if someone had seen him and told everyone that once so mighty Smaug was now only a size of a raven.  But it hadn’t taken a long for him to find the royal dove and threaten it to take the message to the camp on the morning.

Smaug was of course pleased that his wicked plan had worked, not even Bilbo suspecting him. But somehow his joy of the success was about to die under that strangling knot he had in his throat. And from that Smaug knew that he had done the right decision; if he stays with this silly hobbit any longer, that knot might actually strangle him and he might even regret of bringing this innocent folk in this war. And regretting was something that Smaug had only done once in his life before, and he surely didn’t like to remember how the remorse felt. So now it was important just to fulfill his promise he had made to Bilbo, and that was to help the hobbit to find his cousin’s family and save them from the orcs. That would be that one unselfish thing he needed to do so he could be freed from this stupid, devilish curse. And he had already come this far, it would be stupid to give up now, after all this hard work he had done.

“Smaug,” Bilbo whispered, awakening Smaug from his thoughts.

“You’re my guardian, right?”

Smaug just nodded at that, waiting for the hobbit to continue.

“So if things go awfully wrong… You will be there to help me?” Bilbo swallowed, not daring to look at the dragon.

“Well, that’s what guardians do, right?” Smaug answered, throwing his best sincerely look towards Bilbo who carefully lifted his gaze to meet Smaug’s and smiled carefully.

“Thank you.” Bilbo nodded and started to pack his bedroll.

And that knot in Smaug’s throat only tightened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, finally the location is gonna change!


	14. In front of my eyes

More further in north they travelled, more cold the weather got and soon they were forced to march in a thick snow. But Bilbo decided that he wouldn’t complain as long as they didn’t see any orcs around. Bilbo didn’t even know how lucky they had been, when they had already travelled for a whole two days without a sight of an enemy.  But not everyone knew to appreciate that luck, many of the dwarves were constantly complaining about the freezing wind and the quick pace Thorin had them to march.

“If I could help it, I wouldn’t march a group like this too fast towards the orcs.” Gloin whispered to Bofur who was relaxing on the wagon’s his brother was dragging.

“Well, isn’t it nice to know that our prince trusts us enough to fight with us?” Bofur grinned and asked from Nori did he have any pipe weed.  

“I bet that uncle is just overly happy that he finally gets to beat some orcs! At least I can’t wait to see their surprised faces when an arrow pierces them before they have even time to blink!” Kili boasted somewhere behind Bilbo, who made sure to check time to time was his sword glowing.

“Yeah, the king has never seen an army like this!” Fili cheered next to his younger brother, having Dori rolling his eyes.

“Well, of that I’m sure.” the older dwarf huffed as he was throwing worrying gazes towards Ori who merrily chatted nonsense with Dwalin.

“As much as I enjoy fighting, don’t you guys also wish that this war would soon to be over so the life would get back to be normal?” Bombur asked, his mind flying back to his house and the big kitchen he had there.

“I surely do, you really can’t make money in the army.” Nori nodded, though he had earned (or cheated, who knows) a few coins when they were playing cards or betting in the evenings.

“I surely miss my books and wine-cellar.” Dori muttered, leaving out that he also just wanted to get Ori out from the danger as soon as possible. And right now there were two dangers: the orcs and the prince’s bodyguard.

“So what do you all plan to do after the war is over?” Bilbo hopped in the conversation, gaining eager answers from his fellow soldiers. Mostly they all just wanted to get back to their homes, have their everyday life back, but when came Bofur’s time to answer, the dwarf decided to tease a little bit his friends.

“I’m going to return home as a hero, get free ale in every tavern I go and maybe marry a nice lass!”

To that answer Bofur gained a few whistle and cheer, as well an amused look from Nori to which Bofur winked back teasingly.

“Free ale and a beauty by my side don’t sound bad at all!” Fili laughed, propping his brother’s side with his elbow.

“Oh as a probably future crown prince you already get free ale and you have Kili by your side, so I think you got nothing to dream of!” Nori laughed, as a joke of course, but not actually knowing how right he had been just now.

“I must say that nothing can bring you a greater joy than a loving family!” Gloin stated, and as he noticed how his friends started to yawn, having already heard Gloin’s stories about his family over thousands times, Gloin focused his attention on Bilbo only.

“You might not know this, but right now we are heading towards the village where my family lives! Only a couple of days more and I finally get to see my wife and my son again!”

After chatting a while about Gloin’s perfect wife and handsome son, Fili leaned over the hobbit’s shoulder and asked did he got someone to wait for him in home.

“N-no, no I don’t.” Bilbo shook his head, and suddenly everyone turned their eyes on him.

“What, an honest and pretty lad like you? And there is no one to love you back in home?! Not pretty lass or a handsome lad?”

Bilbo blushed by those words that Bofur had said to him. Well he knew that among the dwarves the relationships between men weren’t unusual, and they certainly weren’t unheard even in Shire too, but Bilbo never really had thought himself as a cutie, a great catch or something like that.

“Well maybe that will be taken care of when you return home as a victorious soldier!” Oin, who had just recently taken his hearing horn back to use assumed, but the young brothers in front of him were throwing a knowing smirks to each other.

“Or maybe he doesn’t even need to wait till the war is over. You know, maybe someone here has already noticed how sweet our little friend here is.” Kili and Fili smirked, and almost everyone else seemed to get the joke (which actually wasn’t a joke) except the poor Bilbo.

“Wh-what do you mean by that?!” Bilbo demanded to know as Kili patted him on the shoulder.

“Come on, Bilbo! Don’t tell us that you haven’t noticed how he is looking at you?”

“Who is looking at me and how?!” Bilbo snapped, but others just laughed, and he was left to walk without an answer to his question.  

Days passed slowly in the cold mountains, and Bilbo was once again reminded why hobbits should not march to the war in dwarf-pace; he was twice as tired than everyone else when they finally stopped to have a rest and his body wasn’t as used to the dark and cold as dwarves’ were. Without Smaug’s help it surely would have been impossible for him to make a little fire to keep him warm in the evenings, but the small flames weren’t enough to brighten his mood as the night fell.

One night they considered themselves lucky when Fili and Kili had spotted a large cave which they could sleep in for a night. It gave a shelter from the snow, but wasn’t actually a warm. The dwarves spent their evening by the large fire and sang their merry and sometimes melancholic songs. Bilbo knew that he could go and have fun with them, but he was too exhausted to do so and so he just had Smaug to light a little flame for himself in a dark corner of the cave. After doing so, Smaug disappeared somewhere deeper in the cave, wanting to have some time to collect his thoughts, or so he had told. But the real reason was that whenever he was alone with Bilbo, the strangling knot in his throat only tightened, and so he was avoiding the hobbit as much as he could in the evenings.

Bilbo knew that he was far enough from the rest of the company for them to see him, but he didn’t want to take any risks and so he didn’t take off his fake beard or his boots. At some point during the evening he heard through his clattering teeth how two persons were approaching him, thankfully just passing by him and continuing their way in the shadows. Bilbo couldn’t see the two dwarves clearly, neither hear their voices properly, but from the two indefinite shadows from the cave’s wall he could easily tell that they were Dwalin and Ori. Bilbo couldn’t help but think how awfully romantic those two were, and a smile slowly made its way on his frozen lips. But after a few minutes, someone else was walking towards him too, this time stopping in front of him.

“Good evening.” Thorin nodded and a little startled Bilbo greeted him back.

“Have you seen Dwalin? I need to talk with him about tomorrow’s plans.” the prince explained, but Bilbo decided that it was best to lie a little now, and so he shook his head.

“No, I haven’t seen him, I’m sorry.”

But even after getting his answer, Thorin was reluctant to leave his subordinate’s side, and after a few minutes silence- well, if you can call it as a silence when Bilbo’s teeth were clattering so loudly- Thorin took off his furry leather-vest and placed it on the hobbit’s shoulders, then sat down next to him by the small fire.

“It looks and sounds like you’re freezing here.” the dwarf commented, and after a little hesitation Bilbo pulled the vest around himself.

“Thank you very much.” he nodded, enjoying the sweet warmness.

After that he and Thorin chatted a bit about this and that, mostly about the fighting techniques with Bilbo’s new sword, about the weather, the route they were taking etc. Neither of them knew how to deepen the conversation, though they both wanted to know more about the other. But at some point Thorin mentioned something about how they were going to force the leader of the orcs, Azog the Defiler on his knees, and the topic Bilbo had discussed with the other dwarves some days ago popped on his mind.

“So what were you planning to do then? When the war is over I mean.”

Thorin laid his eyes on the smaller one, then moved his gaze towards the dying fire and sighed.

“I haven’t thought about that far. Probably my life will go back to be like it was before this.”

“And what kind of life you had before this?” Bilbo asked, carefully.

“I helped my grandfather, my father and my siblings whenever they needed me, taught Fili and Kili to be better fighters, studied and worked with my people. Yeah, mostly things like that.”

“So, you’re not married either.” Bilbo said without thinking, realizing his mistake too late but still clapped his hand over his mouth after a few seconds like it could help anything. Damn, he hadn’t meant to say that, of course not! But somehow this wife and husband-thing had nested in his mind after the conversation few days ago! And somehow he found himself so very surprised when hearing that this handsome prince did not have someone special in his life yet.

“No, I’m not.” Thorin answered, very surprised of Bilbo’s words. Thankfully the fire was dim enough to hide the slight blush that had creep on his cheeks, but Bilbo’s reddened face showed clear to the prince.

“Does that mean that you are not ei-“

“Yeah. I mean, no! I’m not married or anything like...” Bilbo stuttered, his voice low from embarrassment. And that amused Thorin a little.

“After we have won the war, you are welcomed to stay in Erebor and look for a partner from there.” Thorin smiled faintly and threw some small dry branches into the small fire.

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Bilbo swallowed, his voice now so low that Thorin didn’t even hear him. But the dwarf prince decided that this was a good way to end this evening, and he stood up to leave.

“Well, good night mister Boggins.”

Bilbo wished for him a good night too, but then he remembered the vest he still wore.

“Thorin!”

They both froze. This was the first time when Bilbo had used Thorin’s first name.

“I mean, Master Durin… Your vest…”

“You may have it for tonight, I’m all fine like this.” Thorin replied, and left before the hobbit had a chance to refuse his offer.

Bilbo snuggled deeper in the cozy fur, deciding that he should wake up early and give it back to its owner before anyone starts to spread odd rumors around. And just when he was about to close his eyes, he saw how his small dragon friend crawled back from the back of the cave.

“Did you miss me?” Bilbo whispered, grinning to Smaug who snorted and started to search the warmth from Bilbo’s backpack.

“Ha! I wouldn’t have come back so soon if those two _lovesick dwarves_ hadn’t happened to choose the same place as I to pursue their relationship!”

“Well I don’t want to know about that!” Bilbo placed his hands on his ears, being pretty sure that he could guess what Dwalin and Ori were doing back there…

“Oh I think you should know about it!” Smaug teased him, leaning closer to Bilbo’s ear.

“You can’t even imagine all those things that happened in front of my eyes just few minutes ago-”

“Oh shut up!” Bilbo laughed, giggling silently with Smaug before the sleep came to his eyes.

 

Somehow the days after that evening were much merrier, and the dwarves were even singing during the day and during the marching. And the funniest thing was that Bilbo was even singing with them, almost feeling like he was one of the dwarves and not a weak hobbit.

“My village is right there, behind that hill!” Gloin pointed forward, clearly resisting the urge just to run there to see his family.

“Finally we get to sleep in proper beds!” Nori cheered, and others were also talking about all kinds of things they could finally do; eat delicious food, get away from cold snow and all the other things like that.

 

But the sight that greeted them behind that snowy hill wasn’t the one they were expecting.

 

“What… What has happened here?” Balin rubbed his eyes, and Thorin just stood frozen next him: The whole village had burned down, not even a one house saved from the destruction. Everything in front of them was dead.

Quickly forcing himself to recover from the shock, Thorin told his men to go and search if there were any survivors, which he actually doubted. But what he was sure was that this was orcs’ doing, and he was just about to go and check had those damned creatures left any signs of themselves when Balin motioned him to come closer, pointing at a dead dwarf soldier’s body that laid on the burned ground.   

Bilbo had run with others to see was there anyone who could tell them what had caused this horrible accident. But he wasn’t much of a help when it was almost too much for him to look at the burned and bloody bodies. He whispered something to Smaug, but the dragon had sneaked somewhere just after their arrival. So being left alone, Bilbo knew that he must be brave, and when he walked closer to death bodies, he realized that there were almost as much humans as there were dwarves. That was very weird, because as far as he knew, dwarves and men didn’t live in same villages, even though those two races didn’t have anything against each other. But it was hard to tell anything more about the victims; their faces were destroyed by fire and bruises, their bodies bloody and broken.

Bilbo tore his eyes away from the horrible sight, but when he looked at his feet he realized that he had stepped on something; it was a piece of a lace. As he looked it closer, it was a handkerchief. A very beautiful one with embroidered initials, which were impossible to read through the mud and blood. But when he lifted it up and looked it carefully, he realized that the handwork was very similar to the one he himself used, the way he had learned from his late mother. He hadn’t seen one of these for a long time. Last time was when he taught this handiwork to Primula, after she was recovering from giving the birth for Frodo.

And before the ugly thought even reached in his mind, Bilbo’s eyes followed the path in front of him, stopping on two, bloody and bruised hobbit bodies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaargh, another late update, sorry! But here's some drama and bagginshield!
> 
> Again, I'm very thankful for each comment, kudos, bookmark and view! And I'm so friggin sorry about my english! I feel like it's getting worse and not better like it should after writing it so much! Yeah, I'm not a native english speaker :


	15. Alive

Suddenly the handkerchief in his hands started to feel heavy. His vision was blurring when he took a few hurried steps closer to those two hobbit bodies, which had tangled around each other like they were embracing before their ugly and painful death had come. Bilbo couldn’t have told that they were his cousin and his cousin’s wife by their faces; like the dwarves and humans, they were covered in mud and blood. But Bilbo was sure that they were Drogo and Primula just by looking at their clothes and feet. He kneeled in front of them and touched carefully Primula’s shoulder. Her body was so cold that Bilbo pulled his hand right away and gasped.

“No, no… This can’t be true…”

But this wasn’t a nightmare from what he could wake up any time he wanted to. No, this was what the war meant: civil victims, destruction and death. And he had been so stupid when he thought that he could just march in middle of this all and save someone! He couldn’t even protect his own family, he had come too late. Tears run down on his cheeks, and for a little while the whole world was silent. There were just him, Drogo’s and Primula’s dead bodies on the cold snow and the silence.

But then a loud yelling broke the silence, and Bilbo saw how Gloin was running from left to right, searching his wife and son everywhere. And not too far from them, Bifur had kneeled down and shouted something in the dwarven language. Soon almost all Bilbo’s friends had run to him, and Bilbo forced himself to stand up to see what was happening.

“Someone get Oin here! We found a survivor!”

Bifur held a dying human man in his arms, and even though they all knew that the man was going to die in any seconds, they hoped that he could tell them what had happened in the village probably only few hours before the dwarves had come.

“Orcs… They came out of nowhere… We… We had not time to fight against them… There was even a dwarven army with us… But they were helpless too… No one could… No one… ”

Gloin wanted to know what had happened to his family, and Bofur needed to drag the worried dwarf away before he did something reckless.

The man continued his story in a weak voice, telling that he and other humans were evacuated from their villages to here just few days ago. But they all knew that this was not a safe place either, and so they had started to evacuate dwarves and men from here too towards Erebor’s strong gates.

“We had already sent all the children away… And just some of the women too… But… But we had… Had no time to before… And now my wife… My wife…”

The man lost his consciousness , few lonely tears appearing on his eyes before he closed them. Oin had Bifur to carry him to their wagon so he could treat the man’s wounds, though he doubted that he could actually save him.

Bilbo was left to stand there with grieving Gloin and Bofur who tried to calm down his friend.

“Listen to me Gloin! He said that they had already sent all the children to Erebor! So Gimli is safe, he is alive! And you said that you couldn’t find your wife, right? So maybe she was one of the lucky ones who were evacuated before the orcs attacked! Your family is alive! They’re alive Gloin!”

It took some seconds to Gloin to fully understand the meaning of Bofur’s words, and when he did he broke in tears and dropped on his knees. Bofur patted him on the shoulder, telling him that it was alright.

Bilbo blinked his own eyes, unaware of the tears he had wept. But through his shock he too heard Bofur’s words, and suddenly it hit on him; all the children were sent to Erebor. So it meant that Frodo was alive. He inhaled deeply and felt how his heart lightened a bit in middle of all this sorrow. His body trembled and he didn’t know what to feel; the sorrow of Drogo’s and Primula’s death, or the joy of knowing that the little Frodo was somewhere alive.

“He is alive…” Bilbo spoke out loud, so it would feel more real.

“Frodo is alive.”

But he didn’t get to be alone with his thoughts this time either. He saw how almost all the other dwarves had gathered around Thorin and Balin, and how Dwalin carried a blood-dirtied sword towards his prince.

“It’s grandfather’s…” Kili swallowed, and Fili squeezed his brother’s arm.

“I’m so sorry.” Dwalin apologized as he gave the sword to Thorin. Then he held out a small golden medal.

“Frerin’s…” Thorin gasped and Dwalin hurried to take a hold from his shoulders, just in case if their leader was about to break down. But Thorin didn’t. Even if his heart was broken, his body would stand tall till he died.

And soon they got the whole picture of the events: A human village was evacuated to this small dwarven village, and an army of dwarves accompanied them. And when they had started to move the children and women to Erebor, the king’s son and grandson, Thorin’s father and older brother sent a half of their army to escort them. And just when they were about to send the rest of the women away, orcs had attacked, killing every single one. The king’s army was hopeless in front of them.

And the man they had found died few hours later to his wounds, and they didn’t find any more survivors from the village. They spent hours for burying the victims, and the ones who had lost their family or part of it mourned silently away from others eyes. Bilbo buried his cousin and Primula alone, and was very sad when he couldn’t find any flowers for them. He promised to their souls that he would save Frodo and take care of him for the rest of his life, that he wasn’t going to give up from hope of finding that little boy.

Through his own sorrow Bilbo remembered Thorin, Fili and Kili. They must have it hard too, for losing two of their family members. It pained his heart to see always so merry brothers so sad and angry. They just wanted to continue the journey and have their revenge, but Balin was calming them down, telling that hurrying and a blind anger wouldn’t help them now. Thorin and Dwalin had disappeared somewhere after burying Thorin’s father and older brother Frerin. At some point someone had realized that now when the king’s son and oldest grandson had died, Thorin would now be the crown-prince.

“Azog the Defiler will now surely come after us.” they were talking, but the ruthless orc was now the last thing Bilbo wanted to think about. Of course he wanted revenge too, but more than anything he just wanted to continue towards Erebor and find Frodo.

And he didn’t need to wait long. Before the night fell, Thorin and Dwalin returned, telling them all that they would continue the marching immediately. The sadness Thorin felt in his heart couldn’t be read from his face, he was being strong for his men. But Bilbo could tell that something in Thorin’s blue eyes had frozen, and only time could melt it away.

And just when Bilbo was about to look for Smaug, he opened his backpack and saw how the dragon had already returned there.

“When did you come back?” Bilbo lifted his eyebrows.

“Just few minutes ago.” Smaug lied and told he wanted to sleep. But the truth was that he had returned hours ago, feeling sick to his stomach. The red dragon had been overly joyed when he realized that around him was now more than enough grilled dwarf-meat to eat, and so he had left Bilbo’s side in order to eat some. But when he had open his mouth to have a bite of one dead dwarf’s arm, he suddenly just couldn’t do it. He just… couldn’t. He had waited a chance like this for years, but now suddenly the thought of dwarf meat wasn’t so delicious, and he hated himself for that. It must be because of that knot in his throat, or then he was sick, very sick.

Yeah, he must be sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, no Frodo this time either... And sorry for the sad chapter too, this was supposed to be happy story!
> 
> But, thank you all for the comments, I received them so much to the previous chapter! And thank you for kudos, bookmarks and views too!


	16. Guard me now

For two days they marched almost in total silence. No one knew what to say, many of them had lost someone dear. Fili and Kili were the only ones who showed their emotions, but mostly only for each other. Sometimes they muttered something about what they were going to do to those orcs when they got the chance. At first Balin was afraid that that kind of talking would only anger Thorin, but the prince let his nephews to express their anger freely. He himself couldn’t mourn after his brother and father, or better to say that he couldn’t show his sorrow. He needed to be strong here, needed to show that they were strong.

Bilbo too couldn’t let anyone to know that he also had lost dear ones. Well he told Smaug, telling that if ever he would need his guardian it was now.

“I must save Frodo.” he had said. And Smaug had been too busy with his thoughts to actually care. But the knot had tightened again a little.

Even though Thorin didn’t know about Bilbo’s loss and how similar their situations actually was, he had found some comfort from his company. Together they had stayed up late, not actually talking about anything that really mattered, but they had just made sure that neither of them was alone. Silently, they were thankful for having each other.

As they had made their way further in north and to mountains, the snow under their feet was getting colder and heavier, slowing them down. It was almost impossible to drag the wagons there. Bilbo was the only who had a pony, Myrtle with him, but she was not used to do so harsh work so Bombur was forced to do the heavy job. But it would take only a one day’s march for them to get to Erebor here, and if they hadn’t come across that destruction two days ago, their sprits would be high. But now Thorin’s company only thought how to tell the sad news to the king and how his son and oldest grandson were dead.

All of sudden, one of their soldiers fell down, shot dead by the arrow which had hit his head.

Thorin instantly looked up to the mountain hill, seeing how the Durin’s line worst enemy, Azog the Defiler was there with handful of orc-soldiers.

“Everyone! Get ready for a fight!” Dwalin commanded, and took his axes. He quickly shoved one of them to Ori’s hands, nodding to the boy that he was going to be alright.

“There are only so little of them, no more than us. We will easily win!” Bilbo heard Fili speaking. He pulled his sword, Sting as he liked to call it, and hoped that his guardian was awake to help him!

But the mighty dwarf-army started to feel so insignificantly small when the orc-army took a step closer to them, revealing that there were hundreds- No, almost thousands of orcs standing behind Azog and his white warg. 

The dwarves paled; this was hopeless! Thorin knew that his nephew, Kili was the only one who had enough skills to shoot even a few orcs down from this distance, but they would have to eventually wait till the close distance fight, and when that comes they would be doomed!

“If we die, we die with honor!” Thorin shouted as they all prepared to fight, hoping for a quick death.

“Kili, take aim and shoot Azog first.” the dwarf prince commanded, and Kili did his everything to steady his trembling fingers and draw his bow, ready to shoot the first arrow.

Bilbo mirrored his face from Sting; was this really his end? No, he hadn’t fulfill his promise yet, had not saved Frodo! He couldn’t die like this, not today!

“But what can I do?” he whispered, trying to think of a solution. And then his eyes wandered back to the massive orc-army, and for no reason he looked above them, straight to the high hill that was covered by heavy snow. The orcs’ shouts of fighting and running wargs were already shaking it, and Bilbo knew that it would just take a little push to make it break.

“Of course!” his face lightened as he his mind created another crazy plan for this year. Then he called out his little dragon friend, who had been in his backpack this whole time, probably just waiting for an opportunity to slip away.

“Smaug?”

“Yes?”

“You are my guardian, right?”

“So I said…”

“Well then, guard me now!”

And before Smaug or anyone else had time to think anything more, Bilbo had leapt forward, pushed Kili away and taken his bow and arrow. Then he continued his running, ignoring his friends’ screams.

“Boggins! What are you doing, come back here!” Thorin shouted, but Bilbo couldn’t hear him; he knew that this was the only way to save them.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Smaug hissed to the hobbit’s ear, but also gained no answer. He was so ready to jump off and leave Bilbo alone, but even in a situation like this he somehow couldn’t leave this stupid wannabe-dwarf.  

“Just trust me!” Bilbo yelled, to his companions and Smaug as he stopped, the orc leader on a white warg quickly coming towards him. But when Bilbo set the bow, he lifted his aim from Azog and the arrow found its way to that shaking mountain’s side.

“He is crazy!” Dori and Oin blinked their eyes, and Bifur yelled something very threatening to the small dwarf.

“You idiot! How could you miss him?!” Dwalin shouted, frustrated.  But not them all thought their smallest one as an idiot, and Bofur turned to look at his brother and Gloin.

“Come on, we must help him!” and it took only a little convincing to get them to raise their swords, and clumsily in a thick snow they started to run to help the poor Bilbo.

But when the mountain started to tremble, and big piles of snow fell from it, causing the other mountains drop their loads too, everyone understood what this clever little man tried to do.

And soon, with a one well-aimed arrow, Bilbo had created a massive avalanche behind the orc-army.

Azog the Defiler looked with wide eyes how his men drowned under the heavy snow-wave. Within seconds he was in front of Bilbo, ready to slice the hobbit in two with the metal hook that replaced his left arm. Bilbo dodged barely the attack, feeling just how the hook only scratched his left side. He had no time to dwell on that, and quickly turned around to run away from the washing snow.

Bofur, Bombur and Gloin also turned around when seeing what Bilbo’s arrow had done. And soon all the dwarves knew to run and hide somewhere behind the large rocks, praying them to be stable enough to save their lives.

But Thorin had not abandoned his friend. He run to Bilbo, grabbed him from the arm and quickly run with him towards the shelters. Behind them they heard Azog’s screams as the orc was buried under the snow, but only five seconds after that the avalanche had achieved them. Thorin’s hold from Bilbo’s arm slipped as the snow swallowed the dwarf prince, but somehow Bilbo managed to stay on the surface.

“Thorin!” he looked for the prince, seeing only glimpses of the dwarf as he was in danger to suffocate under the snow.

This probably could have been their end, if not Bilbo’s usually so lazy and pretty fearful pony Myrtle had found her way to her owner through the drowning snow. Myrtle had also very hard time to keep herself on the surface, but just when she was about to slip away from Bilbo’s reach, Smaug caught her from the reins. It certainly was not easy, but somehow Bilbo managed to get on top of Myrtle and keep them both on the top. Then he reached back to Thorin, caught his hand and held on until the avalanche slowed down, eventually stopping fully.

Bilbo pulled Thorin up from the snow, and it took a little while for the dwarf to gain his full consciousness again. As Thorin started to understand what had just happened, other dwarves saw that the danger was finally over. They had enough courage to leave their shelter, and run to their leader and Bilbo’s side.

“That was amazing, Bilbo!”

“You are a real hero!”

They cheered almost as loudly as when Bilbo had climbed up that post to tear the arrow off. But of course now they were a bit afraid of another avalanche, and so kept their tone low. Bilbo had really not understood what he had done just now, and suddenly he started to feel kind of dizzy. But then Thorin laid a hand on his shoulder, suddenly pulling the hobbit in his arms.

“You saved my life, mister Boggins. You saved us all!”

Bilbo’s head started to spin even more, but he managed to hug Thorin back.  And in the dwarf’s arms, he felt like home, like all the puzzle pieces had found their right places. It was weird, like someone had just fixed something Bilbo didn’t even know that was broken.

“Thorin-” Bilbo breath out, feeling suddenly a sharp pain on his left side, but right after that his body went numb and he couldn’t even feel the cold air around him.

Thorin took a one step back, looking his savior with a great worry. Then his eyes wandered to look the growing red stain just above Bilbo’s pelvis, and before anything could be said or done, Bilbo Boggins fainted. The last thing he remembered was Thorin Durin holding him in his arms again, this time whispering prays for Bilbo to survive when others tried to find their doctor and medical equipments.

“Fight, Bilbo. Please, please survive…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this chapter, I feel like it's written kinda... stupidly(?) 
> 
> But Thank You All for commenting, giving kudos, adding bookmarks and reading! I'm really happy to know that some people like my work!


	17. Long way

Quickly, they had made their way further to mountains, set up their only unbroken tent and left Bilbo in Oin’s care. The doctor said that he would like to examine their brave soldier alone and in peace, and so everyone else just walked back and forth outside and waited, Thorin being the most restless one.

Oin was relieved to notice that the wound that Azog had caused to Bilbo was not deep at all, just a scratch as it had felt. But the bleeding had increased by all that running he had done, and so he had fainted only because of a slight blood loss. The lad just needed to rest for a while, and he would be all fine.

The old dwarf-doctor was just about to go outside and tell the good news for his company, but when he tugged Bilbo under the fur-covers, he noticed that something was not right in his face.

“You better not have broken your jaw, boy..!” he muttered as he took carefully the young dwarf’s face in his hands. But nothing was broken, his beard was just somehow… off? Oin’s eyes narrowed and slowly he stroked Bilbo’s short beard, realizing that it was fake.

It took for some seconds to him to understand why Bilbo had worn it; the lad probably had some kind of sickness, and couldn’t grow a beard. In the army it could lead you into awkward situations, so of course he had tried to protect himself from embarrassment.

“What a silly lad you are, mister Boggins.” Oin chuckled, and brushed his hand through Bilbo’s smooth face. But that was when he noticed how two pointy ears peeked under his curly hair, and ugly suspicions awaked inside the doctor again.

He combed Bilbo’s hair behind the lad’s ears, and his eyes widened as he noticed Bilbo’s big, a little bit elf-like ears. But Bilbo was not an elf, that was sure. He was a way too small and soft to be one. So Bilbo was not an elf, but he surely was not a dwarf either. And for sure he couldn’t be a human man, orc or goblin, so what on earth he was?

After a little thinking Oin remembered how he had heard about a creatures called… Oh what were they again… Wobbits? No, hobbits, that’s it! He had never seen one before, but he had heard that they were small, merry folks that were skilled farmers who liked comfy things and quiet lifestyle. They never really liked to leave their homes, so if you never visited in one of their village, you probably never see them.

“They can’t swim, have pointy ears, can’t grow a beard but they do have big and hairy feet.” Oin reminded himself what he had read or heard about hobbits, and the only proof he needed was to take off Bilbo’s big boots. He needed to sat down as Bilbo’s secret reveled to him, and he just couldn’t understand that why a simple, peaceful folk like him had risked his life to fight beside the dwarves.

“What have you done? And what am I going to do now?” he sighed and rubbed his forehead. He hoped that he hadn’t noticed anything or that he could just put Bilbo’s disguise back on and pretend that he hadn’t seen anything. But he knew that he couldn’t betray Thorin, his prince and now future king. But he also knew what could be the sentence for lying and faking the papers to join in the army; the death, in the worst cases. And a soldier like Bilbo didn’t deserve to die, even if he was not a dwarf.

Eventually, he made his decision. He would give Bilbo’s faith to Thorin’s hands, praying that the prince was to make the right choice and value the friendship over the law.

 

 

Bilbo opened his heavy eyelids and blinked them few times, till Thorin’s shape started to form before him. The dwarf prince looked shocked as he studied Bilbo, and the shorter one didn’t know what had caused that look on his face.

“I feel alright” he was about to say, but when he first tried to smile to Thorin, he felt how his fake-beard was no longer tautening on his chin. Immediately he clasped his hand over his face, quickly remembering that probably his ears were in danger to show too. But when he moved his other hand to cover one of them, he understood that it was too late; Thorin knew.

“I can explain!” Bilbo tried, but Thorin just turned around and walked out from the tent. Bilbo pulled his tunic securely over his patched upper-body and run after the man.

“Thorin, I-“ he was cut short when the cold air surrounded him, and others’ shocked faces met his. They were confused, disappointed, sad and wanted the answers. Bilbo swallowed and looked Thorin’s back, pleading the dwarf to turn around so he could explain this all.

Thorin just couldn’t believe it. When Oin had come out and said to Thorin that Bilbo was alright, his heart lightened and all he wanted was to run in that tent and embrace the little man. But the doctor stopped him and said that he should know something about Bilbo.

“His body, well, how should I start…”

“I know, I have seen his body.” Thorin had said, thinking that Oin wanted to tell him about Bilbo being almost hairless dwarf. Though his statement gathered a group of interested gazes behind him and a few chuckles too. But Oin got surprised and blurted out:

“So you know that he is a hobbit?”

And now they were here. And nobody wanted to believe it. Bilbo Boggins, if that even was his name, was a liar, had cheated his way to the dwarf-army and pretended to be one of them and so brought a great dishonor to them. What all the others would say, that the dwarves couldn’t tell a hobbit apart from them?

“My relative, a little boy is in Erebor, in middle of this war where he does not belong to, and I know that I don’t belong to here either, but I was trying to save him and his parents but they were already-” Bilbo tried to tell his story, but was silenced when Thorin turned around to look at him with his icy blue eyes. He didn’t say anything, but those eyes told everything.

_“You betrayed me. I trusted you.”_

Bilbo dropped down on his knees, and he had never felt so lost. Oh why this was happening now, now when he was so close to Erebor and Frodo?!

Thorin dropped his gaze from Bilbo and began to walk towards Myrtle, whose saddle they had put on Bilbo’s backpack and sword. He took Sting, and turned again to Bilbo.

“Uncle, no!” Fili and Kili rushed forward, but Dwalin stopped them.

“You know the law, boys.” he said, and felt how his little lover’s eyes looked at him in a shock. Dwalin turned his eyes to Ori, his determined gaze telling to the scribe that he trusted Thorin to make the right decision. Ori wasn’t so sure if he could trust Thorin, but he trusted Dwalin and so he did not move when the prince stood in front of the hobbit, holding a short but sharp sword.

Bilbo closed his eyes. Of course, this was almost too ironic. Thorin was going to chop his head off with Sting, (or the “cheese-knife” or “letter-opener” like others liked to call it) with a sword he had given to Bilbo as a gift.

But instead of stabbing Bilbo, Thorin threw the sword in front of him and said:

“Go home, where ever it is then. I don’t want to see you ever again.”

They all knew that it was a payback; Bilbo had saved Thorin’s life, and now Thorin spared his. But Thorin would feel no mercy if Bilbo was to break this silent promise to never show himself in front of the dwarf prince again. If he did, he would be doomed.

Many of them wanted to run to Bilbo, say goodbye or just talk to him, but knew that angering Thorin more now would be very unwise. In silence they walked away, looking over their shoulders to see their brave soldier one more time. To tell you the truth, they felt betrayed by Bilbo’s lies, but none of them was mad at him. But as Thorin quickened his steps, they were forced to leave the hobbit behind them all alone.

Well not all alone, of course. There was his pony Myrtle, and the little dragon who had been hiding in his backpack this whole time, trying to swallow the tightening knot away.  When he was sure that the dwarves were far enough, he crawled to Bilbo. There was no real emotion in Bilbo’s face, but soon the hobbit hugged his knees against his chest and wept silently.

“You alright?” Smaug asked, even though he knew that there was no way that the hobbit was alright.

“Let’s just go home and forget this all.” the dragon tried, his tone being its usual “I-don’t-care-much-about-anything” –steady one, but the knot had lowered it painfully.

“They were right. Dain, Thorin, everyone. I’m stupid, useless, weak-“ Bilbo stammered, but Smaug interrupted him.

“Hey, you weren’t weak or useless: you just saved the prince and killed the whole orc-army with just a one arrow. Stupid you might be, though. You risked your life out there more than needed!”

“NO! I promised to save them all, Drogo, Primula and Frodo! And now, now Drogo and Primula are dead and I can’t save Frodo! For some damned reason I can’t run there and confront Thorin and all the others, say that this is my war too and just save that boy! Because I’m just a coward! Just a simple, weak hobbit who didn’t know his place and who still… still is afraid to let go of this life!”

Bilbo beat the frozen ground with his fist and swore. Smaug had seen Bilbo angry, sad and frustrated but never like this. The hobbit cried openly, scolded himself twice as bad than before and there was no hope left in him. Smaug tried to swallow before saying something, but he realized that he couldn’t do that; the knot was too tight, almost too tight for breathing.

“The worst thing is that I thought that I belonged.” Bilbo suddenly whispered. His tone was the one that people use when they open up of their deepest desires, the dreams they hadn’t dared to say out loud before. And normally Smaug would laugh when hearing that tone, but now… Well, the knot was too tight.

“Like, I love Shire, my Bag End. But sometimes I found myself hoping that Bag End would be somewhere… else. Or I don’t know. I mean, I always hoped that I would have a reason to go somewhere away, like Drogo had. But why I would go away when I was and was supposed to be happy there? When all I needed was there… When I already had a life there.”

Smaug couldn’t look at Bilbo for this whole time. And when he was sure that Bilbo had ended his outburst, the hobbit took Sting in his hand and continued.

“But then… Dain came to Shire and I met you. And you pushed me out of my house, helped me to get away from the safety I secretly and unconsciously wanted to shun. And in the army… Well, it was hell at first, but when things started to flow, I felt like I belonged, and at some point, not many hours ago I almost thought that I belonged because of him... But in the end it was all lie. I lied to him, I lied to them all and I lied to myself. Like Dain said, I’m just a hobbit, and my-kinds should not know anything about war. And hell, he is right, no one should know! But don’t I have the right to protect what I love too, even if I’m not a dwarf? Maybe, but… but I couldn’t. They’re dead. And maybe Frodo too... I let them all down, betrayed him, everyone, myself and you.”

Now Smaug felt how he was so close to suffocate. He kept repeating in his head that in front of him was just the same, naïve hobbit he had met over a month ago in Shire, the one whom he had been always ready to sacrifice if needed. It should not matter what Bilbo thought about him, hated or loved, all the same. Feelings, especially other’s feelings had never mattered to him.  So why the hell it now felt much more worse when Bilbo still thought so highly of him, even though Smaug had been pretty lousy “guardian”.

“I’m sorry; an idiot like me does not deserve to have a guardian. I’m so sorry….”

Bilbo looked at his reflection from Sting, eventually dropping the sword down and began to weep again. And that was when it all became too much for Smaug, who let out a shaky breath and stroked Sting’s blade lightly with his tail.

“You’re not the only one who lied, you know.”

Bilbo lifted his head to look at the dragon, never seeing him so troubled before.

“I’m not a guardian. In fact, I have never treasured anyone or anything enough to guard it within my life. I never really cared. You were right; dragons are selfish and greedy, nothing like guardians.”

Bilbo looked the dragon through his teary eyes, not being sure at all what Smaug was saying. It was like he hadn’t understood even a one word.

“What?”

“I thought that you could be my “one unselfish thing” or something like that… That if I help you to save your relatives, I would be freed from this insignificant body. But I guess that in the end I was just thinking of myself and my own needs again, so this all has been futile.”

Bilbo understood even less what the hell Smaug was after. But slowly it started to sink in him that the dragon had been lying to him ever since they had first met. Or had he?

“You’re not making any sense here.” Bilbo stated and rubbed his reddened eyes.

“You never forced me to do anything. Just pushed me to do the things I wanted to. And yeah, maybe you could have been a bit better guardian, but when it was really hard you never left me.”

“Whatever… My point is that I’m a dragon, and like you said, we are wicked creatures and we can’t change. And I obliviously lied to you, so I guess we’re both fools and liars here.”

Smaug sat down next to Bilbo and like the hobbit, he too hugged himself into a small ball. Bilbo stared at the dragon for a while until he buried his face again between his knees and chest.

“Yeah…”

The cold air washed trough them and the mountains were silent for a while.  Then Bilbo opened his mouth again.

“But, it’s not like your lie hurt anyone. We all do selfish things, it’s not anything new. But I betrayed them, betrayed them all.”

“Hey, don’t make it sound like you got it worse here!” Smaug hissed but Bilbo just shook his head.

“No, I’m the worst. So stupid!” he growled and kicked his sword further away from him.

“Stupid you are, indeed! But in what way your lie hurt anyone either?! When did you betrayed them, you saved them all! You were the only one who was clever enough to get that arrow back then, and only some hours ago you knew exactly where to shoot it! Just pity yourself all you want, but you are not a betrayer!”

Bilbo looked at Smaug, eyes wide from the shock of his sudden outburst. There were actually coming smoke out from dragon’s mouth and nostrils as he yelled. And then Smaug lifted the sword from the snow and pointed it to mirror Bilbo’s face again.

“Look at you; you are a hobbit, not a dwarf. But does that make you a traitor? Any less brave? Why do you think that hobbits could not be soldiers like dwarves are? You have come a long way here, Bilbo Baggins, and if you think that you worth any less in this war just because you don’t have a beard, then you’re even more stupid than I thought!”

Bilbo blinked his eyes as he was watching his reflection, and then moved his wide eyes back to Smaug. But then he suddenly chuckled, a sweet faint smile appearing on his face.

“You too… have come a long way to here.” he smiled and rubbed his eyes again.

Smaug frowned at him, raising an eyebrow to the hobbit.

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe you’re not a guardian, but you certainly are not greedy, selfish or a wicked dragon either. At least not anymore.”

Smaug certainly didn’t like the way Bilbo was looking at him. He backed a few steps away from the hobbit and looked away.

“Please! If you think that I was trying to cheer you up just now, you got it all wrong he-“

“ “Bilbo Baggins”. This was the first time you called me by name.”

Smaug stopped and had not his face been covered by red scales already, he probably would have blushed. Bilbo looked at his friend with a fondly smile and reached out his hand to pat him gently on the head.

“If hobbits can be good soldiers, why cannot dragons be good guardians?”

Smaug wanted to slap Bilbo’s hand away, but somehow it seemed to ease the knot he had been trying to swallow away the past week.

The silence around them was now somehow comforting instead of saddening. Myrtle moved next to her owner, and Bilbo stroked her beautiful hair and sighed.

“Guess we can’t stay here forever…”

But then, they heard a loud grunting somewhere behind them, from the place what the avalanche had washed over. Myrtle startled, and Bilbo started immediately to soothe her. The grunting and growling continued, echoing through the mountains and hills. Then, someone shouted furiously, and Smaug and Bilbo’s suspicions awaked.

Carefully, they crawled to peek over a small pile of snow, seeing how the fearful orc-army digged their way out under the freezing snow. Well not the whole army, only about ten of them had survived, and one of them was their leader, Azog the Defiler.

“Oh no!” Bilbo swallowed and run his hand through his hair.

“Nah, don’t be sad; you still killed almost them all.”

“I didn’t mean that! Even with only so little of them and without wargs the orcs can still kill the king and take over Erebor!” Bilbo explained his worry to Smaug.

“Well, that’s not your problem anymore. After all, why should you care anymore about them? You’re not in the army anymore.” Smaug said and reminded Bilbo how badly his “friends” had treated him after finding out his secret.

“No one stood up for you.”

But Bilbo had stopped listening Smaug from the beginning: He was already started to saddle Myrtle and hanged Sting back to his belt.

“What are you doing..?” Smaug asked as Bilbo jumped on his pony and looked the path towards Erebor.

“I’m going to go and warn Thorin and others.”

“What?! Are you crazy? Did you already forget what he said to you?”

“Yeah, if I recall right, he doesn’t want to see me ever again…”

“And you’re still going?”

“I can’t let them all die! Besides, Frodo is there and needs me!”

“Well then, go there, snatch the boy and run back to Shire! No need to arm yourself for a fight!”

“But I can’t leave them either!”

“So you go and risk your life?!”

“What would you care about it?”

Bilbo locked his eyes to Smaug, and had never looked anyone as seriously as he looked the dragon now.

“You may stay here or go where ever you like and think this journey as futile. Or you can come with me and try to find some meaning for this all. For me it’s all the same, but better decide quickly, because I’m not going to wait!”

And even though Smaug hated nothing more than being commanded, he just let out a frustrated growl as he hopped on Bilbo’s back.

“Well let’s go and beat some orcs!”

And with that, Myrtle started to run, taking them to Erebor. As they were riding with a fast-speed on the thick snow, Smaug suddenly realized how the knot in his throat had disappeared totally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, I was fast to update this time! Maybe because this was absolutely my fav chapter to write in this fic and I kinda planned how the events would go in this scene before I even started to write this whole fic! So I really hope you like it too, and please tell me if there is something very disturbing in my english, I'm not native speaker, so... 
> 
> But THANK YOU ALL for commenting, giving kudos, adding bookmarks and reading!


	18. That Strength

In less than an hour the whole Erebor was celebrating the death of Azog the Defiler and his army; the dwarves had won the war. Quickly spreading rumors told that the enemy had fallen when a sudden avalanche had washed over them. Balin was the one who had the honor to tell this story to their people, but he had obeyed Thorin’s words; there was no need to tell about the hobbit who had fooled the prince and the army, but there was also no need to make someone else to play the hero-part. This might not be the greatest story ever told, but the most important thing was that the orcs were dead and Erebor was safe.

Also the news of crown-prince and his oldest son’s death had been told and heard. But Thorin had almost been shocked how calmly his grandfather had taken this all.

“The war needs sacrifices, that can’t be helped.” he had said in a steady voice. Thorin knew that his grandfather mostly only loved the gold which covered the floors and painted the walls in the palace’s chambers. But never had he thought that the fact that all this gold was safe were to be more important to Thror than his own family. Thorin wanted to yell at him, tell the old man to open his eyes and ask was he really that heartless. But he couldn’t. Because even if Thror was his grandfather, he was his king above anything else, and more than king’s grandson Thorin was just one of his knights. And knights don’t go against their king.

And so instead of mourning after his son and grandson, Thror wanted to make the whole Erebor to celebrate their victory, starting immediately.

 

\------

 

Bilbo didn’t know the shortest way to Erebor, but he was pretty sure that orcs were not going attack before they had made a proper plan. After all, there were no more than ten of them and Erebor was full of dwarves.

But getting past Erebor’s gates was a challenge of its own. Bilbo was afraid to confront the guards, fearing if Thorin had mentioned to them something about killing a curly-haired hobbit-traitor if he wanted to get in.

Erebor was a huge mountain, and so there was no way that Bilbo could climb up of its walls to get in the town. But that doesn’t mean that he didn’t try to.

“Give up now; you know it’s impossible like this.” Smaug sighed as he was watching Bilbo’s desperate attempts to climb up.

“I can’t give up here!” Bilbo hissed back, but in the end he realized that the situation was hopeless. He leaned his forehead against the mountain’s wall and banged it with his fist.

“Damn it! I’m too close to fail now!” he cursed, but then he heard how something grumbled.

Suddenly, there was a crack on the stone wall, which surprised the hobbit and the dragon completely.

“Wow! I knew that I had put on some muscle in the army, but I never thought that I was this strong!” Bilbo looked at his fist, but Smaug had a better guess.

“Wait just a minute…”

Then Smaug carefully tapped the crack again, until some pieces of stone fell from it and reveled a small opening.

“Hah! Like I thought, dwarves still have these secret passages which they have even themselves forgotten!” the dragon sneered and entered in the dark corridor.

“Better follow me so you won’t get lost!” he yelled to the hobbit, who after a few seconds run after him.

 

 ---------

 

“You don’t look like you’re in a mood of celebration.” Balin commented as he looked at Thorin’s weary face.

“I’m just tired.” the prince sighed as he was putting his festive cloak on.

“You’re still thinking of Bilbo?”

“I’m not…”

“No need to lie to me, lad.” Balin smiled, but Thorin did not answer. His emotions were all mixed up and he would have never believed that he would feel like this after winning the war.

He had lost his father, his brother and his respect towards his grandfather. And he had also lost his trust to Bilbo Boggins, and maybe some other feelings too towards the little dwa- I mean, the hobbit…

“Why did he do it?” Thorin asked out loud without meaning to do so, but Balin heard him and knew exactly what the younger one meant.

“Well he mentioned something about saving his relatives.”

“But why did he lie?”

“Would you have let him in the army if you knew that he was a hobbit?”

“Of course not!”

“Well there you see.”

Thorin grunted something back to Balin who had also being shocked by Bilbo’s secret, but after some thinking he understood why the lad had done as he had. And he knew that others had forgiven him too. Be a hobbit or a dwarf, Bilbo Boggins was one of them, a soldier and a friend. But for Thorin he had been much more than that.

“You had feelings for him.” Balin stated, now gaining an angry look from Thorin. But the prince didn’t say anything.

“See, you can’t even deny it.”

“Shut your mouth.”

Balin knew that Thorin was stubborn, he had always been. But now his stubbornness was about to destroy his probably greatest happiness, his one and only love. Balin knew that there was no way that he could run back to the hobbit, take him to Erebor and force a peace between him and Thorin. But he also wasn’t going to just stand there without a single word.

“Thorin, I know that this all is very hard for you. And don’t, no excuses; I know that you weren’t anything like close to your father and you surely didn’t get along with Frerin most of the times, but they were still your family and you mourn after them. But last night, when we were resting under those big conifers, I saw something. I couldn’t sleep and knew that neither could you, so I was about to get up and go to talk to you. But then I noticed that you were already talking with mister Boggins. I don’t think that he was saying anything too particular when he was staring at the fire and mumbling something to you, but you looked at him and _smiled_! And it wasn’t one of those smiles you fake when asked are you alright and you’re actually not. It was a real, pure smile with a longing gaze. It takes a great strength to smile so soon after a loss like that and let me tell you something my boy; Bilbo Boggins was that strength to you! And-“

“BALIN!”

Thorin’s shout echoed in the chamber, and after it died the silence took over just for a few seconds until Thorin spoke again.

“Leave, before I lose my mind.”

Reluctantly, Balin backed away from the room and closed the door behind him.

 

\-----------

 

Ori had been busy after they arrived in Erebor. He knew that he should have spent the time before the celebration on writing all the events down, but he wanted to talk to his brothers about Bilbo. And he didn’t even know what he should write; the version that Balin told to everyone or the truth? But Dori and Nori were as lost as he, and soon it was about the time to go and celebrate with Erebor’s people, though not even one of them really wanted to fake happy after losing their friend and hero, their hobbit.

The king Thror spoke to his people from his castle’s balcony, his speech gaining loud cheers of joy from his people. But the dwarven army, the legendary army which had seen the orcs’ death and which was now waiting inside the castle for their turn to show themselves, was not merry at all; at least not thirteen of them.

Dwalin saw how troubled Ori looked as the lad had pressed his back against the wall in a dark corner, sweaty fingers twiddling the pen over the paper.

“Having a stage fright?” he asked as he walked next to his lover.

“N-no… It’s just… Right after the king’s speech ends and we have gained the thanks from the people I need to give this report to his majesty. I don’t know how to write about the events of today.” Ori confessed and Dwalin patted him on the shoulder, telling him that it’s okay just to cheer him up. But the older warrior couldn’t deny that he also felt guilty about leaving Bilbo behind when the dwarf- the hobbit, I mean, had saved them all. But then again, even if they all had forgiven him his lies, would the king do the same too? Somehow, Dwalin doubted it. After all, king Thror was the proudest dwarf Erebor had ever seen.

“Bilbo will be alright, you know? Thorin left him his pony, his backpack and sword; he will make it back to his home surely now when the orcs are dead.” Dwalin tried to assure Ori, but the boy just shook his head.

“I wish that I could have had a chance to thank him for saving us, tell him that I’m not mad at him and wish him all the best. If I just could see him only one more time, then-“

Before Ori had time to end his sentence, the wall behind him cracked and suddenly moved backwards a little. Thanks for the loud merry sounds from outside, no one was able to hear the noises it caused, and so they also didn’t hear Dwalin and Ori’s gasps when they saw how Bilbo Baggins crawled out from that crack with a small red lizard.

“Mister Bog-” Ori yelped, but Dwalin covered his mouth with his hand before they gained any unwanted attention from their friends who were standing only fifteen feet away from them.

“What are you doing here? And how did you find one of those secret passages?” Dwalin hissed, but Bilbo had no time to answer his questions.

“I will explain everything later, but you must listen to me now! Azog and few of his men survived from the avalanche, and they are going to be here in any second!”

But before the two dwarves in front of him had fully understood what the hobbit meant, they heard how the cheering outside had changed into a fearful screaming. And as they run to the balcony to see what was going on, they saw how the orcs were breaking through Erebor’s gates, quickly approaching the king’s castle and destroying everything they saw.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I just wanna thank you all for your comments! I know I'm terrible to answer them, but to know what you think of this story means lot for me! And thank you all for kudos, bookmarks and views too!


	19. Want to help

If they had thought that it couldn’t get any worse when thousands of orcs attacked on them on the mountains, they really were doomed now when only ten of Azog’s soldiers made their way to Erebor. Dwarves were running and screaming, the houses were set on fire and it would only take some minutes for the orcs to step into the castle and behead the king.

Soon few orcs had found their way inside the castle, breaking its heavy doors with their axes and fists. Thorin told Dwalin to take his grandfather to the upper floors, he himself was going to make sure that the enemy would not make its way further in the castle.

“Come on! We must help the prince!” Nori shouted, and soon every soldier had followed Thorin, everyone except the neglected Bilbo. The hobbit was pretty sure that no one had noticed him besides Dwalin and Ori, at least he didn’t met Thorin’s blue eyes at any point.

“We should escape while we still can; this place will soon turn into a bloody battlefield.” Smaug assumed, but Bilbo shook his head.

“I can’t leave them.”

“But what you can do?!”

When Bilbo refused to listen and tried to make his way to downstairs, to where Thorin and others were fighting against orcs, Smaug climbed up the hobbit’s torso and looked at him straight in the eyes.

“Listen: We came here to save your cousin’s son, remember? He is somewhere there, outside this damned castle where some of those bloody orcs still are. Better get down there and save him above everything else!”

Smaug’s words sank into him quickly; Bilbo nodded and turned around to look down to the town from the balcony. But what surprised him was that he couldn’t see any orcs there anymore. The dwarves were quickly putting out the fires, Gloin leading them with his family.

“How come the orcs have disappeared?!” Bilbo blinked his eyes when Smaug rolled his.

“Obliviously because they are fighting beneath us, inside this castle!”

“Oh right! But… Why there is no noise then?”

Now that they both stopped talking and ignored the shouts from the town, they did realize that no sounds of fighting came from downstairs.

Somehow that was even more scarier.

Before Smaug had time to protest or even hide properly under Bilbo’s tunic, the hobbit had already run towards the stairs, and saw from the shadows in the landing how the small dwarf army looked around as surprised as he was; there really was no sign of those bloody orcs.

“They just broke the doors! They can’t disappear like that into thin air! Or can they?” Dori’s voice carried to Bilbo’s ears, and soon he saw how Kili suddenly looked up towards him and paled. At first Bilbo thought that the boy had noticed him, but instead of Bilbo’s name Kili shouted Dwalin’s. And only seconds after that Dwalin stumbled past him, falling down the stairs until Thorin and Bifur’s arms caught his wounded body.

“I’m sorry…” Dwalin repeated, a blood running down through his armor from his right shoulder. Thorin pressed his palm against Dwalin’s wound and told him to tell what had happened. But it really didn’t take much for them to guess that the orcs had been more clever than they thought, somehow few of them managing to get up on the roof and Dwalin said that he had been able to take one of them down before getting this wounded.

“The king… Azog has him… In the throne room… Azog told me to… to tell you that he will finish with him first and then… come after you.” Dwalin breathed out before he fainted.

Thorin gritted his teeth and banged his fist on the ground. After collecting himself he left Dwalin in Oin’s and Ori’s hands, commanding others to follow him towards the throne room to save his grandfather. Bilbo pressed his body tight against the wall in the shadows as dwarves hurriedly passed him. After few seconds he carefully followed them, and not much later he heard how the fighting had begun. Smaug slipped out of his back and crawled to see what was happening. When he came back, the news were worrying.

“There is only three orcs against them, just before the throne room. The big pale orc has probably left them there to slow the dwarves down, so that he has enough time to finish his businesses with the king.” Smaug assumed, being one hundred percent right. Bilbo gulped and nodded, and Smaug quickly added that the dwarves would win those bastards surely.

“But they won’t be making it on time; the king can die in any second!” the hobbit knew, and just from that Smaug could already guess what would happen next.

“You want to help them?”

“I won’t do any good in the battlefield, I must find another way to the throne room.”

“The orcs surely didn’t use the stairs or a door, so there must be a window or a balcony up there.”

“So we must climb up there from outside.”

“Well, they had a few pillars near the roof on the outside of this castle… Still remember how to climb up one?” Smaug smirked and raised his eyebrow to his big footed friend who answered to the dragon with the same look on his face.

“You bet I do!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this is so short chapter! I'll update another one tomorrow if I remember!


	20. No plan

“Please! I give you anything you want, just spare my life!” Thror begged the orc in front of him, giving up all of his pride to save his own life.  

Azog laughed; Thror seemed to be the only one of the royal family who didn’t care to go down with honor. At least his son and grandson hadn’t showed their fear when Azog beheaded them. Well, he could still smell the fear, and in the large balcony, highest one in the castle where they now were was filled with the bittersweet scent of great fear. He would throw the dwarf king’s body to his people after cutting off his head, enjoying the screams of the miserably dwarves.

“The only thing I want is your head, my king.” Azog grinned and bowed ironically. The guards standing against the door were sneering too and waited for to see the greatest show in their entire lives; how their feared leader would break the neck of the dwarf king.

Azog took a tight grip from the old king’s chest and lifted up his hook.  

“After you, it’s just your grandson and the young princes; after having their heads my collection will be perfect! But I think that even sweeter than killing you will be when I get to behead the youngest grandson of yours. After all, he kind of lessened the number of my men before I came here. Too bad that he and his stupid little dwarf soldiers weren’t enough to kill m-“

The pale orc had not the chance to finish his speak. Something hit back of his head lightly, just barely for him to feel the touch. He looked around and saw how a one, dwarf-sized boot laid on the balcony’s floor next to him.

“So that’s your plan? Knock him out by throwing shoes on his head?” Smaug hissed at Bilbo’s ear who was currently hanging from a big pillar next to the balcony, having managing to climb up it without orc’s noticing him.

“I threw it with a full force…” Bilbo whimpered back and tried to think quickly how he would actually get himself in to the balcony, save the king and fight against Azog and his men. Funny how you want things what you actually don’t, isn’t it?

“We need to climb up to the roof, hurry!” Smaug whispered and Bilbo kept on climbing, hoping that it wouldn’t be too late when he finally arrives to Thorin’s grandfather’s rescue.

Azog’s grip loosened a bit as he just stared at the boot, not knowing where the hell it had come from. And just after a few seconds the doors to the balcony flew open and four dwarves, Thorin, Nori, Kili and Fili run in, orc-blood covering their swords and axes as they had took down three of Azog’s men. But before Azog they still had another three guards to handle, and many of Thorin’s men had wounded themselves pretty badly earlier.

“Go Thorin!” Nori insisted that he, the boys and few others who had run in the balcony just after them could handle the orc soldiers. Thorin needed to save his grandfath- no, his king.

Azog had now completely let go of Thror and stared now at the dwarf prince. He didn’t even notice or care when Kili quickly run to his great-grandfathers side and tried to take him safely out of the battlefield. No, Azog was far more interested in Thorin than the king now.

“And you thought I was dead, little prince?” Azog grinned as he marched towards Thorin.  Thorin kept his sword pointed at the orc, trying to ignore the terrific sounds from the battlefield behind him.

“You think you can take me down on your own?” Azog continued, still not receiving an answer from the dwarf.

“I can’t wait to hear do you scream as helplessly as your brother and father did when I ripped their heads off!”

This time Thorin answered by attacking furiously towards the orc, his sword stopping at Azog’s metal hook. Thorin was too furious to properly focus on his attacks, just swinging his sword madly towards his enemy, and soon Azog had him pinned down on the floor, his hand pressing on Thorin’s forehead and his hook ready to behead him.

And on that second when the orc whispered “goodbye” and his hook was coming down to meet the dwarf-prince’s neck, all the thoughts and regrets run in Thorin’s head.

He regretted of not getting better along with his late father and brother.

He regretted of not defending his sister Dis and let his nephews follow him to this terrific war.

He regretted of not talking some sense to his grandfather’s head.

But most of all, he found himself regretting of tossing away the greatest and bravest person he had ever met in his life, the person who proved himself many times over and over again and who saved his and his men’s lives but whom Thorin still abandoned as a traitor. Just for a few lies. Just because he wasn’t what he had claimed to be. But had that really mattered?

Thorin had already thought all this over when they had arrived to Erebor, before and after the fight with Balin and before the orc’s had attacked. The truth was that he really hadn’t told Bilbo to go because he had been lying. Thorin hated lies but doesn’t everybody lie sometimes?  It would have been understandable just to be mad to Bilbo and let him wait for a forgiveness for a while but Thorin had said that he never wants to see him again. Because Thorin knew very little about hobbits, but what he did know was that they were weak, gentle creatures who never left their homes. They weren’t built like dwarves. And to think that Thorin had taken a sweet, fragile thing like Bilbo in middle of all the horrors of war was too much for him. The hobbit could have died so much easier than any of the dwarves. He wasn’t meant to carry a sword, not even as small as the one Thorin had given to him. If Bilbo had been a dwarf Thorin could have thought that he had really made a soldier out of him, made him grow up and be a real dwarf! But ‘cause Bilbo is a hobbit Thorin could only feel guilty and blame himself of showing these horrors to him.

If anything, Thorin wished that he could just see the hobbit one more time and apologize. Tell him that all those times when they had trained together, when they had sat next to each other and talked almost all night long were much more important than the fact he had lied, that no matter who Bilbo really was could not change Thorin’s true feelings towards him.

“Bilbo…” Thorin breathe out quietly, bracing himself for his dead.

But before the orc’s hook met his neck, something very sharp sank painfully in Azog’s leg and the orc howled in pain. He let go of Thorin who was left to gasp air in his lungs and watch how Azog held his bloody leg, cursing. Not many seconds if any had time to pass before someone dragged Thorin up on his feet and told him to run.

“Go! We must run away!”

Thorin couldn’t believe his eyes when he understood that it truly was Bilbo speaking, his smaller hands pulling the dwarf up. The other dwarves were still struggling against the three orcs by the entrance of the balcony, and Bilbo knew that he and Thorin could not escape. He knew what he was about to do next was crazy, but hadn’t everything he had done for the past weeks been absolutely mad?

It didn’t take long for Azog to stand up again. His furious eyes met first Thorin’s, but then he noticed the little beardless man next to him, actually rushing to stand in front of the dwarf to defend him.

“Remember me?  I took over half of your army down with a one arrow, I think that you ought to be scared of me!” Bilbo tried to sound tough, managing at least so well that his voice didn’t shake too much. And he also managed to gather all of Azog’s attention, the orc remembering that Bilbo truly was the same dwarf who had started the avalanche. His anger got the best of him, and furiously he started to chase the hobbit who quickly escaped on the roof, trying to lead the defiler away from the dwarves.

“What’s the second part of your plan?!” Smaug asked as he climbed out from Bilbo’s tunic, eyes settled to the very, very angry orc running after them.

“I got no plan!” heard Bilbo’s short reply.

“You got no what?!”

Smaug got no time to start to lecture the hobbit when Bilbo tripped, causing the small dragon to lose his grip and flying few meters away from him. Quickly Bilbo got back on his feet, knowing that Smaug would be alright since Azog had his eyes only on the hobbit who luckily found another balcony, jumped down on it and run inside the castle, not really knowing actually where he was trying to lead the orc leader.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I remembered to update! 
> 
> Thank you all for your comments, kudos, bookmarks and big thanks for everyone who have read this!


	21. Think

“Take care of the wounded ones, I’m going after Bilbo!” Thorin told his men as they had finally took the last one of Azog’s subordinates down. He could only hope that he had been fast enough with helping others to kill those three orcs and Bilbo was still alive, having been fast enough to escape from Azog’s fury.

 

 -------------

 

Bilbo had escaped into a large room, not being sure what was its’ original purpose in the castle. He hoped that it would take a while for Azog to find him, at least so long that the hobbit had made up some kind of plan what to do next.  Oh how he wished to have Smaug here now! The dragon was quite smart when it came to the running away and thinking fast! But still, maybe it was better that they had gotten separated on the roof; Smaug was very small and not much of a help when it came to fighting. He would just crawl into some nice corner and appear again when this all was over.

But… Would Bilbo survive through this?

“Think, think!” he repeated to himself and backed to lean his back against the heavy door. And just after a second a metal hook pierced it, missing just an inch Bilbo’s ear.

Well you can probably guess that after that Bilbo had no time to think anything but running, and thank Mahal there was another exit in the room, another big wooden door opposite him. Bilbo got a short lead when Azog’s hook got stuck for some seconds to the door and as Bilbo escaped he heard loud cursing coming from the orc’s mouth.

Bilbo kept on running and hurried through the long and tall hallways the castle had inside of it. As he had never been inside of it before, the whole place was like a labyrinth, having smaller passages in every turn. He couldn’t see or even heard Azog anymore but Bilbo was sure that if he stopped the orc would be behind him sooner than he would know. But it was really hard to run like crazy and think a the great plan to save himself and everyone before it was too late.

But yet again, something sharp coming from a small corridor cut off Bilbo’s planning, but this time it wasn’t a hook; it was a sword.

“UAH!” Bilbo yelped as he barely stopped before the sharp blade, and was instantly pulled into the passage by a strong arm.He closed his eyes tight and prayed in his head that his end would be painless. It took some seconds to him to realize that after being tugged into the dark corridor no one had actually hurt him.

“You’re alive!” were the first words he heard through his praying and panicking. And as Bilbo opened slowly his eyes he saw no one else but Thorin standing in front of him, one hand holding his sword when other one was squeezing lightly Bilbo’s shoulder.

“Thorin! You’re,  I mean, I’m sorry for- What I want to say is- Oh yeah, Azog is close and-“  Bilbo stammered, trying to say everything at once. He wanted to warn Thorin about the mad orc chasing him, wanted to ask were everyone else alright, wanting to know was the blood on Thorin’s armor his own or someone else’s but most of all, he wanted to apologize: that’s what he had decided to do if he ever got a chance to see the dwarf-prince again. 

But Bilbo’s apology was cut short when Thorin pressed his lips against his and gave him a quick, yet passionate kiss. The feeling that Bilbo had felt when Thorin had hugged him back in the mountains was there again, this time burning inside of him and almost too much for him to handle.

“I promised to myself to do this if I ever got a chance again…” the prince breathed out and Bilbo was speechless. He didn’t almost hear the heavy footsteps of Azog the Defiler’s that were approaching them, but Thorin straightened up and took a firm grip of his sword once again.

“Stay here and wait; this is my battle!” he told to the hobbit and then stepped out from their hide. Bilbo was frozen for a few seconds, until he heard the low, grumbling voice of the orc speaking to Thorin.

“This will be your end, prince!”

Carefully Bilbo peered out from the dark corridor and saw how the sword and hook met each other again, making a loud, metallic sound as they hit together. The pale orc didn’t seem to be much tired of chasing after Bilbo and the wound Bilbo had caused in his leg earlier looked now almost minor. But Thorin on the other hand was in a weaker state and Bilbo knew that if the fight were to last long the dwarf would lose it surely. And there were no sign of the other dwarves, they all being busy by taking care of the wounded ones and the king if they hadn’t gotten hurt by themselves.

And Bilbo’s suspicions were unfortunately correct; Thorin lost his focus for a second, it being enough for Azog to throw him up in the air, sending the dwarf flying across the hallway and hit his back against a cold stone wall. His eyes were barely staying open and he had no strength in his feet anymore to stand up again so soon. It didn’t actually help much that he had dropped his sword far away from his reach and the murderous orc was approaching him, eyes glittering with malice. That was the point when Bilbo knew that he must act and soon.  

“Come on Sting; show me what you got!” Bilbo pulled his sword out and run to Thorin’s aid, only to clumsily trip on his own feet and falling down between the orc and the prince.

The dwarf clearly wasn’t pleased about Bilbo’s attempt to help him this time, trying to tell the hobbit to go and run away when he still had a chance, but the dwarf was too out of the breath to properly speak. Well, had he had a voice to say anything, the hobbit would have not listened him. Determinedly Bilbo stood up and pointed his short sword towards Azog, trying to block the fear out of his mind.

The orc laughed; the short, beardless dwarf tried to save his lousy prince! Had the small thing just escaped Azog would have even forget him after having Thorin Durin’s head! The lithe guy was hardly any danger now when there were no mountains piled with snow nearby.  

“I can break your neck with two fingers!” the orc sneered and lifted his hook. If he was careful, he may not even need to use his fingers at all; just one good slash and the hobbit’s head would be separated from his body.

To their all surprise, Bilbo was able to dodge Azog’s hook for two times. On the third time he lost his grip from Sting and the sword flew somewhere out of his sight and reach. Bilbo lost his balance as he dodged for a fourth time Azog’s attack and soon he was laying on the floor, feets away from Thorin but only inches away from the orc.

“Bilbo, run!” Thorin desperately tried to stand up but his feet couldn’t carry him. Or maybe the problem wasn’t in his feet, he had hit his head very badly to the hard wall and his vision was blurring. The room was spinning in his eyes as Azog‘s hand reached to grab Bilbo from his neck to lift the hobbit up, looked him eye-to-eye-

But before the orc had a change to sink his hook in Bilbo’s flesh, something came between them, biting hard on Azog’s hand and forcing him to drop the hobbit back on the floor.

“Ouch!” Bilbo yelped as his back hit the hard surface, but as he stumbled on his knees he saw how something red flew from Azog’s hand, twice.

At first it was generous amount of blood coming from a tiny but very deep wound from the orc’s palm.

Second time it was a small, red dragon.

“SMAUG!”

Bilbo scrambled on his feet and hurried next to the dragon that was now a tiny little ball on the floor, blood dripping from the wound Azog’s hook had caused him.

“Smaug! Please, oh please don’t…” Bilbo begged as he took his small guardian in his hands, pressing the wounded body against his chest.

The dragon was still conscious, but didn’t open his mouth to say a word. Not because he couldn’t, he just didn’t want to take the risk that his voice would broke and he would seem even more miserable than he already was. Yeah, he still held tight on his pride.

Smaug’s eyes were fixed on Bilbo’s concerned ones, until he spotted the angry orc behind the hobbit.

“You and your pet are going to pay for this!”

Bilbo turned around and backed against the wall as Azog approached him. He glanced at Thorin, who fought hard to keep himself awake and tried speak and stand up. When he finally managed to do so, it was too late; Thorin was too far and the orc was too close.

Smaug lifted his head from Bilbo’s lap and tried to look at the pale orc with defiance. He could feel the halfling shaking against his small body and knew that he was his only hope.

He was not too wounded for running away.

Azog would not even go after him if he escaped.

Escaping was the only way for him to survive now.

Knowing all that, the dragon still didn’t run away. 

Smaug tried to spit a fireball, but only some smoke came out of his mouth as he coughed. Bilbo held him tight and closed his eyes, trying to cover Smaug’s small form with his own body.  The dragon squirmed away from his hold, coughing more smoke as Azog lifted his hook for the last time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And suddenly, the whole hallway was on fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me some time to update this! Hope you get this chapter and sorry for another cliffhanger! 
> 
> But hey, I got many comments last time, thank you all for them! And thank you for many kudos you have given, bookmarks you have added and thanks for every single reader! It means a lot for me to know that people can actually enjoy my writings, even with my limited english skills :--)


	22. My guardian

“S-Smaug?!” Bilbo swallowed as the thick smoke finally started to fade before him. Suddenly, after a one pitiful cough from the dragon’s mouth there were smoke and flames everywhere. And his little Smaug was gone too, being replaced by someone else:

In front of Bilbo, there was now a huge, red, fire-spitting dragon.

Bilbo was so amazed, scared and confused that he didn’t even notice that the flames were not burning him. But the orc, Azog the Defiler was clearly burning, shouting in agony as the flames ate his skin.  

“No way…” Bilbo kept blinking his eyes in disbelieve and reached out his shaking hand to touch the scaly surface.

“Bilbo!” Thorin’s arms warped around his body and pulled the hobbit away from the dragon, away from the flames to deeper in the castle. Like Bilbo, Thorin also hadn’t properly notice that beside the flames and the heat around them, the fire was only burning Azog.

When the dragon saw that Bilbo was safe, he turned his attention back to the orc, lifting him up with his huge, sharp teeth, not caring at all if the fangs pierced the pale skin.

Thorin pressed Bilbo against his chest, and even though Bilbo didn’t need to see what Smaug was doing, the screams from Azog were enough to make him feel almost ill. But being with Bilbo had taught something to the dragon, who now decided to avoid the unnecessary violence. His suddenly grown body had broken a one wall and part of the castle’s roof, and so he just threw the orc out, sending a one big fireball after him, that all being enough to kill Azog finally for sure.

As the enemy died, the flames around them started to fade away, leaving a thin smoke curtain before their eyes. Bilbo pushed Thorin away and hurried towards the big dragon, only to being snatched back in the dwarf’s arms.

“Bilbo don’t! It’s dangerous, don’t you know what that creature is?!”

At the same second all the other dwarves from their army-company had run to them, the ones who weren’t too wounded to do so pulling their swords and axes out and prepared to protect the prince and the halfling. But the dragon wasn’t going to attack them; he just stared at Bilbo with his big, golden eyes and Bilbo understood right away.

“I know this “creature”;  he’s my guardian.” Bilbo smiled and freed himself gently from Thorin’s hold, walking past his friends and opened his arms.

“Come here, Smaug.”

The dragon hesitated for a moment, until he sighed and let himself to shrunk, but not a size of a lizard anymore. He was about a size of a pony when Bilbo warped his arms around him, whispering softly to his ear:

“Thank you. You did fantastic!”

“Have to when you’re totally useless…” Smaug teased, the smile in his voice making Bilbo chuckle.

“Thorin… Do you understand what’s happening right now? Because I’m a bit lost in here!” Dwalin, who was patched up by Ori and Oin, limped next to his friend who was just as confused as everyone else.

“I don’t know… But it seems that we’re safe now.”

“But Thorin, it is a dragon!” Dori turned to look at him with a concern but the prince just shook his head.

“I can see that, but I also think that it just saved our lives.” Thorin swallowed as he saw how fondly Bilbo petted the red dragon, the other dwarves also lowering their weapons as they tried to believe that the creature in front of them was against all the odds good and not a bad one.

“Well well, it seems that your race wasn’t the only thing I missed.” a voice said behind the hobbit, the familiarity of it making Bilbo smile and turn around.

“Gandalf!”

The grey wizard smiled back to him but stopped the hobbit before he had a chance to give his friend a hug.

“I bet that there is someone else who you had missed so much more.”

Then Gandalf just stepped a one step to his right, revealing Bilbo yet the most beautiful sight he had ever seen:

His cousin’s son; unhurt and unharmed.

“Frodo!” Bilbo’s arms were around the little boy who hugged his uncle back, they both never been so happy to see each other.

“I missed you so, so much! Thank Aüle that you’re okay!”

“I’m great! Strider was with me all along!” the little hobbit smiled, making Bilbo curious.

“Strider?” was he some kind of imaginary friend? That was what Bilbo thought until he lifted his gaze up from Frodo’s bright blue eyes and saw another child, a human boy in his early teens standing next to Gandalf.

Bilbo nodded the boy to come a little closer and the child quickly reached out his hand to shake Bilbo’s.

“So, you have been protecting Frodo? Thousands thanks for that, you have done great job!” Bilbo praised and the boy just politely nodded.

“We were evacuated at the same time. Frodo has been very brave.”

“And you surely have been a very good friend to Frodo.” Bilbo smiled, being so happy to know that Frodo hadn’t been all alone after his parents… Oh, the boy probably didn’t know yet… Someday, someday soon Bilbo would need to tell him, but for now he would just wait little. Maybe he could give Frodo one happy day more before the many nights the little halfling was going to spend by crying.

Quickly Bilbo blinked away the few tears that had appeared on his cheeks and he managed to keep the smile on his face. He had time to take few deep breaths before Kili suddenly jumped to hug him, his brother following soon after and almost suffocated the poor hobbit with their affection.

“Mister Boggins! We missed you so, so much!” the boys cried and in a blink of an eye every one of Bilbo’s dwarf-friends had gathered around him, hugging him or patting him on the shoulder.

“You came back!”

“Please forgive us!”

“We were so worried!”

Bilbo couldn’t keep track who was saying what, who was patting and who was hugging him, kissing his head even at some point, but he felt truly relieved.

“Y-you guys are not mad?!” he asked, gaining a round of head shakes.

“Of course not! Why would we be? You saved us all!”

“And must say, lad, you look much better without a beard!” Bofur laughed, making Bilbo chuckle too.

“Thanks everyone, but the one who saved us this time wasn’t me; you should thank Smaug.” the hobbit smiled and pointed at his dragon friend who just snorted. The dwarves were silent for a moment until Thorin, who hadn’t joined with others to hug and pat Bilbo, decided to show his gratitude to the dragon. But before the prince had time to move, his eldest nephew stepped forward. Bowing to Smaug, Fili said the words that everyone would have wanted to:

“Thank you for saving us, our kingdom and our hobbit.”

Smaug would have never believed to hear anything like that, never from a dwarf at least! He really didn’t had an answer to someone who thanked him of saving lives, so the dragon just turned his head away and mumbled something like “yeah no big deal”.  Bilbo chuckled at that, then moved to hug Smaug again. When he saw how little Frodo was watching them with curious eyes, Bilbo motioned him to come closer and pet the big lizard too. Slowly, the tiny hobbit stepped forward and touched the red surface of the dragon.

“That’s right, there’s nothing to be afraid of.” Bilbo smiled fondly.

Seeing the little hobbit boy petting the dragon the dwarves started to relax a bit. Gandalf smiled at the sight and then lowered his gaze to look at the dwarf prince whose eyes were fixed on the hobbit, his gaze holding some longing and some sort of sadness.

“How’s the king?” the wizard asked, making Thorin flinch.

“Kili, did you manage to take king Thror to somewhere safe?” Thorin called his nephew who bowed down with a little, forced smile.

“Yes, he is with his personal guards now in the east part of the castle. He got some minor wounds and is in a shock, but we’re quite positive he will be alright.”

“I better go and watch over him.” Thorin nodded and gave a one last look towards Bilbo who was still smiling at Frodo. Then the dwarf began to walk away, Dwalin, Oin and Gandalf following him.

When Bilbo lifted his gaze up and saw Thorin leaving, he almost took a step to follow him, wanting to talk with him and thank him, but was stopped when Frodo tugged him from the sleeve.

“Uncle Bilbo, look!” the little hobbit said and Bilbo turned around. The sight he saw was nothing he had expected; the dwarves of Erebor had gathered around them, all bowing to him and Smaug.

“He has tamed a dragon!”

“He saved our kingdom!”

Those were the words Bilbo heard the dwarves whispering to each other, and he was too amazed to say a word. The dragon next to him looked equally surprised until he saw Bilbo’s face and chuckled a bit.

“And you thought that you weren’t a hero, huh?” Smaug gently pushed Bilbo’s shoulder with his big face. The hobbit smiled back fondly and felt how the tears were about to spill from his eyes.

“All the honor for Bilbo Boggins!” Gloin raised his hand, Bilbo noticing how next to him stood a well-looking little dwarf boy and a beautiful dwarf woman. Everyone started to cheer and clap their hands, and when the shouts calmed down a little Bilbo bowed back and cleared his throat.

“It’s Baggins, actually…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeeaah I'm a big Aragorn x Frodo shipper, had to imply it here too...
> 
> And I got so many great, great and lovely comments to the previous chapter! Thank you all for them, I went totally speechless when reading them! And thanks for everyone who have gave kudos too, add bookmarks and read this fic! It's not end yet, we still have few more chapters to go!


	23. Looking for Love

King Thror was still in a great shock and was made to sleep with some medical herbs for him to get better soon by his doctors. When the dwarves knew that their king was in good hands and will surely recover their joy was doubled. The dwarves threw an awesome celebration party on, thanking over and over again the army, Bilbo and Smaug. Well no one except Bilbo, Frodo and Strider were brave enough to talk or touch the dragon, but at the same time no one really was afraid of him as long as they saw the hobbit being near. 

Bilbo was overwhelmed by this all. Even after all he had done for these dwarves, he found it really hard for calling himself a hero. But in Erebor, he was nothing less in the dwarves’ eyes.

“They will sing songs about you, my lad!” Balin patted the hobbit on the shoulder. Bilbo gave a smile to the old dwarf, his eyes trying to find one special one around the huge table. Finally he saw Thorin, the prince was talking with Gandalf, looking serious. Last time Bilbo had seen him was when Thorin went to see his grandfather earlier on that day, just after Smaug had saved the kingdom. The hobbit wanted so badly to talk and sort things out with the dwarf, but it seemed almost impossible for him to reach to Thorin now.

“Come on, Bilbo! Don’t look so grim; this is your party!” Kili and Fili had appeared next to him, wide grins covering their faces.

“I-I’m not grim! Just a bit tired.” Bilbo lied, he still had so much adrenal in him that he was sure that he would never find a sleep!

“Ale helps you to stay awake!” Kili laughed and in a second there was a dwarf lady next to Bilbo, pouring him another drink.

The hobbit wasn’t keen to get drunk tonight, not when he was with Frodo. So he only took small sips from his cup, eyes drifting to look at Thorin time to time on their own. This didn’t go unnoticed by Fili who leaned a bit closer to Bilbo and whispered:

“You know, whenever you look away, he has his eyes on you.” the blonde dwarf smiled and Bilbo flinched. He tried to keep his cool and took a few long gulps from his glass. For the rest of the evening, he tried to keep himself busy by talking with the dwarves, celebrating with them for his eyes would not find their way to Thorin anymore.

 

 

\--------

 

 

“Finally it’s over!” Bilbo yawned and sat on his bed. The room that they had given to him from the undamaged part of the castle was enormous one and Bilbo almost felt lonely sitting alone in a huge bed. He was close to regret that he had agreed that Frodo could sleep tonight with Strider in the next room. After all, Bilbo didn’t know when he would return to Shire and Frodo wouldn’t see his friend in a long time after that.

“You sure you don’t wanna sleep inside tonight?” the hobbit peered out from the window, hand petting Smaug’s muzzle. The dragon had once again returned to his largest size, clearly enjoying being back in his usual self.

“Nah, I better stay near the border, just in case there are more orcs trying to get inside the kingdom.” the dragon shrugged and Bilbo smiled.

“Thank you, you are-“

“Yeah yeah, I know.” Smaug wasn’t really keen on feeling feelings still, and before he flied away he wished a goodnight to the hobbit, telling him to sleep well.

Bilbo was indeed tired, but somehow he felt that h couldn’t find the sleep soon. The celebration had lasted long, and Bilbo had talked to almost every dwarf in the kingdom expect to Thorin; the prince had left the party bit earlier than others, most likely to be by his grandfather’s side. The hobbit paced back and forth in the room, feeling restless. He licked his lips as he remembered the kiss that Thorin placed on them and tried to find a meaning for it. First the dwarf had said that he would never want to see him again, and then he kisses him. Yeah, maybe Bilbo could deduce that Thorin had forgiven him his lies.

But even though Bilbo had been living like a dwarf for a good time, he wasn’t entirely sure what the kiss meant; he recalled that Smaug had told him how dwarves had all kind of complicated rituals when it comes to love. Hobbits were so simple with everything they ever did. Besides, the situation they had been in was very hectic and complicated one, so maybe Bilbo had kinda imaged the whole thing or made it bigger in his head, he had very hard time to remember it all clearly…

Few knocks on the door made Bilbo jump and wake up from his thoughts. He took a deep breath and turned around to face the entrance, telling the guest to come in.

No one else but Thorin Durin himself entered the room, slowly closing the door after him.

“I’m glad you’re still awake. Hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

“No! I mean, I don’t feel sleepy yet.” Bilbo answered, little too eagerly. He put on a smile but it died away quickly as he saw how serious and a bit sad Thorin looked.

“I talked with my grandfather. I told him how you and your dragon saved our kingdom. But… Well, he isn’t convinced.” Thorin ended his line lamely, making Bilbo frown.

“Not convinced? What do you mean, Smaug saved us all!” the hobbit started to defend his now not-so-pocket size-anymore friend.

“I do know that! But my grandfather, he’s too old to accept that the dragons can be anything more than evil creatures. Tomorrow afternoon, when he should be recovered enough, he will give a speech and convince everyone that you’re some kind of sorcerer using dark magic and will try to take over the kingdom by enchanting them. This night and next morning you’re safe and me and my men will protect you and the little boy, but-“

“It would still be best for me to leave early with Frodo and Smaug.” Bilbo ended the sentence and smiled sadly, eyes on his big feet. Thorin closed his mouth and nodded, also lowering his gaze to the floor.

“I tried to tell him not to… But my grandfather won’t listen to anyone once he has made up his mind. And even if I’m his grandson, I can’t disobey his orders. I managed to only to ask him not to black mouth you to our people if you leave when the sun rises; then Erebor will remember you as its hero, not as a sorcerer.”

Bilbo nodded and tried to understand. Even Thorin can’t go against the king’s orders, not even as his grandson. And he certainly didn’t want to be remembered as some kind of evil wizard! At least Smaug deserves to be remembered as a dragon that fought along with dwarves!

“Do I get so say goodbye to everyone?” he asked and Thorin promised that.

“I’ll make sure that everyone will be there to see you when you leave.”

After that the room was awkwardly silent for a few minutes. Bilbo sifted from foot to foot and Thorin tried to find the right words to say. When he didn’t, he decided just to say what he needed to say with the simplest words he knew.

“I’m… I’m so sorry for all this. I’m sorry for everything and want to thank you for still coming and saving again mine and my men’s lives and the kingdom. You had no reason to come back when-“

“Sorry for everything?” Bilbo interrupted Thorin who instantly locked his blue eyes to the hobbit’s.

“Yes… For everything. For accusing you from lying, leaving you behind, treating you like th-“

“Are you sorry too for what happened in the corridor?” Bilbo cut the prince short once again, his question coming out clearly from his mouth and he waited the answer and held his breath.

Thorin needed to think for a few seconds before he understood what Bilbo meant. Oh, he was talking about the kiss…  Of course Thorin hadn’t forgotten that, but he wasn’t sure did Bilbo remember or wanted to remember; it’s not like their previous encounter before that had been pleasant for him.

For once, Thorin Durin couldn’t find words to say and he just dropped his gaze down, slowly shaking his head. The room was dead silent for a minute or two until Thorin saw a pair of big feet before him.

He quickly lifted up his head, but not all the way; he needed to keep his eyes a bit down to stare the hobbit straight in the eyes.

“I wonder why it burned me more than the flames.” was everything Bilbo said before he tiptoed and placed a soft kiss on Thorin’s lips. It was the most innocent kiss ever, but it made Thorin freeze and Bilbo blush as he slowly took a step away from the dwarf. But before he had time to take another, strong arms hugged him closer, eventually gently pressing Bilbo against Thorin’s chest. As Bilbo lifted his face up to look at Thorin’s, the dwarf captured his lips into another soft kiss and the moment felt like it lasted forever.

When the kiss ended, Bilbo’s eyes searched for Thorin’s and the hobbit looked dead serious when asking the following;

“Since when? Since when you wanted this?”

Thorin didn’t know what was the right answer, so he tried the truth.

“Since I saved you from drowning in the camp… Well actually, that must be when I realized that there was something in you, but I admitted my feelings to myself when we talked through the evening in that cave back then.”

“But did it change when you found out that I wasn’t a dwarf?”

To that, Thorin raised an eyebrow and looked a bit confused.

“I wouldn’t be here now if my feelings had changed.”

“No, I meant… Did you regret your feelings then? ‘Cause it really felt like you meant it when saying that you never want to see me again.” Bilbo corrected himself and his smaller hands gripped nervously in Thorin’s tunic.

The silence took over the room and this time Thorin knew what was the right answer. But still, he deiced to tell the truth.

“Yes, I did.”

Bilbo’s head dropped down and instead of Thorin’s chest, he was now staring at their feet. Well, he had waited for that answer, and it shouldn’t matter at all now but-

“But,” Thorin’s voice cut off his thoughts and suddenly a large, calloused hand was resting on his cheek, lifting the hobbit’s head up.

“Right after that I regretted much more of leaving you, never telling you about my feelings and that I never got a chance or courage to do this.” he finished his speech by bending down and placing again another kiss on Bilbo’s lips. Thorin had closed his eyes, so he didn’t see the little sad shine in Bilbo’s eyes, but the hobbit let the dwarf deepen the kiss anyway. He even let Thorin to back him next to the bed, let himself to be laid down on it, Thorin’s lips on his this whole time. The prince’s right hand took a hold of his, fingers tangling together. His left hand started slowly to open the laces of Bilbo’s tunic, remembering how he had seen the hobbit to do so by himself too long ago. He felt how Bilbo’s hand touched his chest, fingers pressing against the rough material of his tunic.

“Thorin,” Bilbo moaned softly when the prince moved his lips down to the hobbit’s neck and on his chest. He hadn’t realized that Bilbo wanted him to stop before the smaller man squeezed his hand tight and pushed Thorin’s chest further away.

“Thorin, wait.”

Bilbo’s voice was soft and sure, steady.  When Thorin lifted himself up and his face was hovering above the hobbit’s, he knew that his eyes alone were asking thousands of questions. But for the first time Bilbo’s eyes didn’t look lost and confused; now they were determined and calm, yet sad.

“About regrets… I would regret this if I don’t say this now, before it’s too late.” the hobbit started and moved his left hand from Thorin’s chest to touch his face.

“I’m pretty sure that… I love you. I think I have loved you longer than I even realize.”

The prince didn’t even have time to smile to Bilbo’s confession when the hobbit opened his mouth again.

“But, I have to leave tomorrow. And you are the crown prince now, you have to stay and repair your kingdom and help your people. After the tomorrow morning, we might not ever see each other again.”

Bilbo’s last words came out of his mouth little shaky and his fingers against Thorin’s face curled into a fist before he continued.

“I don’t know are you looking for love, but love is the thing that has made me go on for all this time; my love for Frodo and his family made me leave my home and help me through the training. Later it was my love towards you and your company that made me come here and fight against Azog. And the thing that I grew to love Smaug made him change… Umh, that’s not what I meant to talk about, wait… My point is here that I have learned a lot in this journey, and one thing I learned is that nothing in our lives is sure and we must live fullest and with no regrets every single day. And to go further with you now would be living life of its’ fullest, but I know that I would also regret it later.”

The look on Thorin’s face was somewhat emotionless and he wasn’t sure what Bilbo had just meant.

“If… If you think that I desire you just for a one night, you’re wr-“ he began before Bilbo shook his head and fixed his eyes back to look at Thorin’s. The hobbit pushed himself up to lean on his elbows and thought for a few seconds how to explain this more clearly.

“Like I said, this could be our last time ever when we’re alone together, the last time we ever have a chance to talk and see each other!  If we now do something more it would feel like trying to desperately do everything at ones! Fearing that this is our last chance ever! But I want to do things out of love, not out of fear. It would only be a sad memory later, and if this truly is my last change to touch you I’m surely gonna regret of refusing you later, but now… I want to have only happy memories.” Bilbo ended his speech, his eyes gone from serious to teary as he had spoken.

Thorin still couldn’t say for sure that he had understood the hobbit fully, but he thought that he still got his point. If this truly was their last private moment ever, it really would leave the aftertaste of desperation and fear of losing. Because that was what they were, heroes who had helped to save the whole kingdom but still feared of losing another and desperate to pretend that this night was the end of a happy fairytale, not just some last chance. Slowly, Thorin nodded and walked back to the door and opened it. Before he walked away he turned to look Bilbo again and spoke with a soft, somewhat defeated voice.

“I’ll see you tomorrow before you leave. I’ll make sure that everyone else is there too. And were it to be the last time we see or not, I’m sure that I love you too. Goodnight, Bilbo Baggins.” with that, he turned away and closed the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the sad ending! Okay, okay, it's not end yet, we still have one more chapter to go! And guess what, I just finished writing another Bagginshield fic!! I'm probably starting to updating it here after I have made you read my other fic, this time from Legolas and Gimli! They're both much more shorter than this, I should try to write more "short" fics, 'cause the long ones take pretty long to write...
> 
> But hey! I love all your comments, thank you all for them, you're always so nice! And this fic already has more kudos than my other fics, I feel so honoured! And every bookmark means much to me too, and I'm really happy to see that people read my stories, so I just wanna thank you all! Look forward the last chapter, I try to remember to update it soon!


	24. Awful Song

Smaug wasn’t surprised when he heard that they were no longer wanted in Erebor; the dwarf king was known from his stubbornness and if he wanted to turn the people against their loved heroes, he could do so easily. Frodo held back tears when they needed to leave so early and he was forced to say goodbye to his dear friend.

“I promise that we will meet again!” Strider had vowed and Bilbo truly hoped that the kids would be so lucky in the future. Strider was a human, child of a man so it was pretty sure that he wouldn’t spend his entire life in Erebor. Who knows, maybe the kid will find his way to Shire someday.  But Frodo was very brave when he did not shed a tear when Bilbo prepared them to leave. He, on the other hand, had cried through the short night and if others didn’t see the dark circles around his reddened eyes they would be blind. It wasn’t fair, hear Thorin to confess his true feelings, tell his own to him and then just leave.

“Don’t be sad; I’m sure your friends will visit you soon or at least someday!” little Frodo had tried to comfort him when Bilbo explained that he will miss his friends. He had made the boy worry over him when he couldn’t even bring a smile on his face as he woken Frodo up. It felt also wrong, Frodo trying to cheer him up when he should have been the one to comfort the kid.

As the first rays of sun appeared in the sky, almost whole Erebor had gathered near the king’s castle to see their hero just for one last time. The king, Thror, also watched them from the balcony but Bilbo didn’t care to look at him; the only ones he paid attention to were the thirteen dwarves who had come to say their farewells.

“We’ll meet again, that’s for sure!”

“You will always be in our hearts!”

“I hope that the songs that we’ll sing about you and our dragon friend will be sung in Shire too someday!”

And all kinds of things like that they said to him as everyone took their turn to hug him. Bilbo couldn’t know did they know the truth why he had to leave now, but in his heart he felt that these dwarves would never believe that he was a sorcerer; he was only a hobbit, not very respectable one though, but still.

The only one who didn’t come to say him goodbye with a warm hug was Thorin. He stood in front of the people of Erebor, eyes dark and face grim. Bilbo could have sworn that the prince had cried through the night too. As he lifted Frodo on Smaug’s back and before climbing up by himself he hesitated for a moment that should he reach out his hand and ask Thorin to go with him or at least just run in his arms and kiss him just one more time. In the end, he did neither of them.

“Don’t worry my boy; I’m sure that everything will work out somehow.” Gandalf promised to him as he gave Bilbo one last handshake before Smaug spread his wings wide and took off. In his sadness Bilbo couldn’t care less about the fact that he would be remembered as a hero in this kingdom and that he and Frodo had just become the very first hobbits that had ever flied on dragon’s back in the whole history. He held Frodo close and buried his face on the child’s soft dark curls, voice muffled and unsteady as he spoke.

“Let’s go back, back to home.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three months passed by like nothing. It felt weird how soon everything became normal again, almost like he had never run off to join in the dwarf-army. The biggest difference was that now Frodo was living with him, still not fully understanding that his parents wouldn’t come back but whenever he cried, Bilbo was close to him. He did not expect any letters from anyone anymore and his neighbors kept whispering about “mad Baggins”. No one really knew where he had left so suddenly and Bilbo knew that no one would really believe his story. Everyone thought that Frodo was telling tales when he spoke about big dragon, orc-attacks and his uncle being a big hero among the dwarves.

Bilbo had let the rumor spread that Drogo and Primula had drowned when someone had started to tell it in Shire. Smaug was the only one to whom he could talk about the war and the ups and downs they had in their journey. The dragon hadn’t left him, and for that Bilbo was truly grateful. Smaug just kept himself small in Shire for avoiding all the panic and hassle, and just went away to woods for weekends to stretch a little.    

One day, though, Bilbo received a letter from Erebor. His heart had beaten in his ears when he had opened it, and it felt terrible for him to feel disappointed when the letter turned out to be sent by Dain. The dwarf had left Shire before Bilbo’s returning and he hadn’t got a chance to thank Bilbo for his hospitality. In his letter he told that he had heard Bilbo’s story, being very sad that he hadn’t been able to see the hobbit in Erebor before he had to leave to build a new life with his nephew.

“So this is the story they tell to others, huh?” Bilbo wondered but in the end he felt that it was probably the best story for Dain to know; at least Thror had kept his promise and let Erebor remember Bilbo as their hero, though that didn’t matter much for him in Shire anyway. Here he wasn’t anything like a hero, he was mad and unrespectable hobbit whom everyone pitied from losing his cousin and his mind. They would never know the truth, or so Bilbo thought.

“Had fun in the woods?” Bilbo asked one early morning when Smaug crawled back to Bag End, sipping his favorite tea straight from the pot.

“You know, the same as usual.” the dragon shrugged his tiny shoulders, enjoying of acting mysteriously. Bilbo let his eyes rest for a minute on Frodo and his little friends Sam, Merry and Pippin who were playing outside under the kitchen’s window, chuckling as he saw how carefree the kids were.

“Remember to go and say hello to Frodo as soon as he’s alone; he has waited eagerly what you would bring him as a souvenir this time.” he laughed, referring to Smaug’s habit to always grab a little gift for the tiny hobbit-child to wonder from the woods.

“Oh you didn’t hear it yet? I already did catch up with the kiddo and gave him something really interesting.” Smaug grinned and Bilbo rolled his eyes to that face.

“Please tell me is not a skull of some weird little animal again!”

“Nah, it’s something even _more_ interesting.”

“Like what?” Bilbo’s curiosity woke up as he hadn’t seen Frodo holding any new toy in his hands and he really couldn’t think anything _really interesting_ that you could find from a forest.

“I taught him a song I heard from birds.” the dragon answered and flashed a knowing look towards the hobbit before continuing.

“They said that they sing it in Erebor.”

Bilbo almost flinched and his teacup made clear and loud sound as he lowered it on his plate.

“They do?” he swallowed, trying to act as normal as ever.

“Oh yes. It’s about a small, big footed sorcerer who used dark magic to tame a dragon and whom the great king drove away before he had time to cast his spells upon his people.”

Bilbo thought that he should be more shocked to hear that, but in the end he had suspected that probably Thror wouldn’t let the chance of playing hero by himself to slip away. Maybe they had started to sing that song right after Dain had sent his letter.

“Is that so? What an awful song it must be.” he tried to laugh, but his voice was too thick for him to sound convincing.

“It only gets better.” Smaug promised and drank few drops of tea more before continuing.

“It also tells about how the sorcerer castes a spell on young prince’s head and under his curse the prince decided to abandon his kingdom, speaking nonsense like how he loves the evil sorcerer and how he’s gonna find him and make him his.”

If Bilbo hadn’t already let go of his cup he would have dropped it now. His eyes looked glassy and the emotion that was exposed on his face looked priceless to Smaug.

“He will lose his way at least twice before finding the sorcerer.” Smaug continued the story even though he couldn’t be sure was Bilbo hearing him anymore. The hobbit sat still like frozen, thousands of emotions washing through him. Three knocks on his door awakened him back to the present, they being too firm, polite and strong for to be done by any hobbit in Shire. He thought that he heard Frodo laughing happily at something or someone outside, muffled sounds of talking carrying inside his kitchen. Smaug didn’t need to look at him to know that the hobbit was crying silently. So instead of laying his eyes on him the dragon turned to stare at the golden sunrays that fell on the wooden floor as someone opened the front door. His voice carried the same teasing tone it had had through his and Bilbo journey from Shire to Erebor and back again as he sighed.

“You’re right; it truly is an awful song.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's done, finally. I hope that the ending pleases you all! I really don't got much to say here now, it's late evening here and writing my other Bagginshield and Dwori fic, drawing fan art of some other serie and things like that. But what comes to this story, I have been very positive surprised that people have actually liked this so much! Than you all! I really hope that you found this fic enough "Disney-like" and the characters weren't too much OOC (expect Smaug, but he went trough a huge character development here). I really do hope to write more fics like this in future, maybe more Disney stories(?) or some other AU fics anyway, since they're my favourite!  
> So, for the last time here, THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR LOVELY COMMENTS, I FEEL LIKE I DON*T DESERVE SUCH A NICE READES AS YOU GUYS! AND THANK YOU FOR EVERY KUDOS YOU HAVE GIVEN, THE NUMBER OF THEM ALWAYS SURPRISES ME POSITIVELY AS WELL AS THE NUMBERS OF BOOKMARKS AND VIEWS! I WANNA THANK YOU ALL FOR READING THIS AND I HOPE THAT WE WILL MEET AGAIN SOON!


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